Changing

Universities link the past and the future. They must preserve and remember, but they must also look forward and change. Below are some recent mileposts of change at the University of Washington.

Included on this page:: Teaching and Learning; Accountability; Managing for Change

Teaching and Learning

New patterns of student learning are more active, participatory, "experiential," and technology based. Learning through research, through team-based projects, and through public service or internships are aspects of this new model.

Since 1995, the UW has listed faculty research projects that seek undergraduate participants. Two years ago the annual listing totaled 136 projects. Last year the total was 443. The UW's first-ever Undergraduate Research Symposium last April featured 80 student presentations.
Forty-six percent of graduates in the class of '98 had participated in UW "service learning" courses or work-based learning or both--up from 27 percent in the class of '96.
The Freshman Interest Group (FIG) program, started in 1987 with four groups, will this year serve 44 percent of the freshman class in 90 groups. FIGs (20-25 students each, enrolled in common courses) provide learning communities that help personalize the UW for new students.
For the 1999 budget request, every single UW school and college outlined plans to incorporate new technologies into teaching.

The new Learning Factory at the College of Engineering gives students hands-on experience in industrial design and manufacturing. Freshmen use its "product dissection lab" to take things apart and see how they work. Intermediate students work in the design lab, design studio, and simulated factory floor. Advanced students finish up in the "manufacturing integration center" putting things back together. In eliminating boundaries between lecture and practice, classroom and laboratory, academia and industrial practice, the Learning Factory is a prime example of new directions in engineering education.

To encourage and enable UW departments to put these new models in place, the administration last spring set aside $5 million (non-state funds) to fund "Tools for Transformation." Departments restructuring for change can seek help from this fund. Additional funds from the state, requested in this year's budget proposal, will accelerate such change across the campus.

For English 198, a reading and writing course that focused on issues in American education, senior Lena Ortiz divided her time between a UW classroom and a classroom at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School. At Marshall she worked with children as a volunteer tutor; at the UW she analyzed this experience through class readings, discussions, and writing assignments. Integrating these two kinds of learning, so that each enriches and deepens the other, is the goal of service learning. Such classes are multiplying at the UW, and so is student participation.

Good teaching remains crucial, and is the goal of several new UW programs. The Faculty Fellows Program, begun in 1994 in the College of Arts and Sciences, will this year offer intensive teacher training to all new UW faculty. A new UW Teaching Academy, formed last spring by winners of Distinguished Teaching Awards, will work to improve and enhance UW teaching campus-wide. Among its resources will be the new Brotman Awards, to honor distinguished teaching by entire departments.

Judith Cam (molecular and cellular biology and psychology), like many UW undergraduates interested in neurobiology, sought out research experiences in the medical school to prepare herself for this field. Starting winter quarter 1999, such students can enroll in a new neurobiology major created through the University Initiatives Fund. An interdisciplinary program of the School of Medicine and the College of Arts and Sciences, the new major responds to growing student demand and brings UW researchers--among the leaders in this important field--into undergraduate education.

Accountability

The UW remains committed to progress in accountability.

Since 1996, four-year graduation rates for students entering as freshmen have risen from 30 percent to 38 percent, five-year rates have risen from 58 percent to 64 percent, and six-year rates have held steady at 70 percent. The five-year rate is the highest of all public institutions in the state and well above the national average of 53 percent.
The freshman retention rate of 91 percent is among the best nationally at public universities.
More than 85 percent of UW lower-division classes now have 35 or fewer students--compared with roughly two-thirds two years ago.
As measured by surveys of graduating seniors, student satisfaction rises steadily. Every year since 1990, ratings have gone up in the following areas: quality of instruction (both inside and outside the major), interaction with faculty outside the classroom, academic advising, and help from faculty in pursuing careers.

Managing for Change

In teaching, learning, and research, individual faculty are the real agents of change. But administrators can spur the process. The UW administration has deliberately managed for change over the past few years: setting forth goals (such as doubling undergraduate participation in research), providing incentives and resources (the Tools for Transformation), rewarding and publicizing success (the Brotman Awards).

In 1996 the UW established the University Initiatives Fund (UIF) to move one percent of its budget from existing programs into new, cutting-edge, multi-disciplinary programs. The first eight of these programs will be up and running by January 1999. More UIF awards will be made--roughly $8 million in each of the next four biennia--in an ongoing process of internal reallocation.

On the operations side, managing for change has meant a focus on increased efficiency.

By one recent analysis, the productivity of UW financial management staff has increased 26 percent since 1990, saving more than $2 million in annual salaries.
New Web-based technologies to speed and simplify campus-wide administrative systems--payroll, personnel, purchasing, and others--are under development and will start operating by the end of 1998. The project, called USER, streamlines these systems without the huge cost in new hardware and software incurred by many universities.
"Bottlenecks" in high-demand biology and chemistry courses, which frustrated students and increased their time to degree, have now essentially been eliminated, thanks to new integrated information systems and a T.A. Fund that provides immediate help for overcrowded courses.
The UW's first-ever joint advising positions were established in 1998 with Shoreline and Bellevue community colleges. The goal is to help transfer students in math, science, and engineering hit the ground running--and graduate sooner.
Since 1987, the UW has won more awards for efficiency from NACUBO (National Association of College and University Business Officers) than any other university. Its 1998 award, for a cost-saving project in the student loan office, is its 13th.
Over the past decade, UW enrollment has risen 7.9 percent--while state funding (appropriations plus tuition), in constant dollars, has remained unchanged.

1998 Report to the State Next