The Heart of What We Do
 President Mark A. Emmert, '75. Photo by Dennis Wise.
The early part of 2007 has been a phenomenally busy time, particularly since we are in the midst of a legislative session critically important to the UW and with all of the excitement that still surrounds our Husky Promise and Students First initiatives. Despite the wildly hectic pace though, it is essential to take time to communicate with the entire UW community about the issues and ideas that affect us all. This is no easy task at a university as large as the UW, but I am very pleased with some new efforts that have sparked conversations across our campuses. One of those conversations has centered on the role of discovery at our university.
What does discovery mean to people at a major research university in the 21st century? Provost Phyllis Wise, who is engaging in a series of conversations about the UW’s vision and values this academic year, posed this very question to our UW community (see www.washington.edu/discovery for more information). As you might expect, the responses she received demonstrated an extremely wide range of thoughts and opinions, from those that related discovery to the cures and innovations sought by our medical and engineering researchers, to those that connected it to the student experience, to those that thought real discovery lay beyond the ivy walls of academia. Sometimes there was consensus among the responses, but most often there was not—a clear demonstration that discovery is alive and well at the University of Washington.
If you think about the role that universities play in our society, you see that we are really charged with two simple tasks: the creation of new knowledge and the transmission of that knowledge to our students and to the world around us. It is impossible to succeed at either of these tasks without the free flow and exchange of ideas or without interaction with others whose opinions challenge and help us advance our own. Discovery and debate are at the heart of what we do.
Consider the consequences of a homogenization of thoughts and opinions in a university setting. If researchers do not present their ideas for review and debate, how will they push the boundaries of scientific discovery? If artists do not showcase their work, how will they inspire others? If students are not exposed to new ways of thinking about the world, what is the likelihood that they will grow to be thoughtful and responsible global citizens? And if members of our university community do not interact with colleagues in business and society, how can we find out how to improve how we transfer our knowledge and innovations to the public?
Sitting around and waiting for discovery to happen simply does not work in our world. Discovery is not merely an internal process; it needs an external stimulus and the right environment. At the UW, it is the interactions and conversations that occur every day across our community that drive discovery.
Any experience that introduces us to something new and different holds unlimited possibilities for discovery. It is a university’s job to maximize those experiences. When students arrive on each of our campuses, we are responsible for not only introducing them to new ideas, but for helping them to find new ways to think about and to process those ideas. When our researchers are faced with a thorny problem, we have to make sure that they have access not only to the expertise of their own field, but to the wide range of insights that can be gathered from across many disciplines. When we make these things happen, discoveries result—solutions are found, and lives are transformed.
A clear and open exchange of diverse opinions and views is absolutely critical to our research efforts, to our educational processes, and to our ability to serve the citizens of the state of Washington. Fortunately, conversation is thriving at the UW, and because of that, so is discovery.
 | | MARK EMMERT, '75, President | |
