TCAC
August 1999 Report Index
Index of Responses
| UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON, TACOMA |
October 5, 1999
Provost Lee Huntsman
University of Washington
Campus Box 351237
Dear Lee:
I want to take this opportunity to commend the Tri-Campus Advisory Committee for its work over the past many months and offer my support for the resulting report and recommendations submitted to you. The Committee has completed a tremendous amount of work and taken important steps in addressing very complex and complicated issues and questions of what the University of Washington as a multi-campus university is all about. i would also offer some specific comments and observations from my perspective as Chancellor of the UW Tacoma.
The first recommendation of the Committee relative to start-up funds is, in my view, critical and of utmost importance to the future development and growth of our new campuses. Faculty and administration on the Committee and others, particularly at Bothell and Tacoma, have very eloquently described in the work and effort required to "start-up and build" a new institution from scratch. The demands on faculty, staff and administration alike to plan for and sustain double digit growth rates each year is extremely difficult and challenging, particularly given the fact that the planning, development and initiation of "new" have historically and consistently been accomplished by taking from existing resources; i.e., existing faculty and staff develop new curricula and programs, hire new colleagues, develop and bring on new and additional infrastructure, design and develop constantly needed new physical space. All of this work to "develop new" occurs at the very same time these individuals are performing their "usual" responsibilities of teaching classes, conducting research, recruiting and advising students, serving on program committees, etc. While it may be argued that institution building is an expected part of the service obligations of faculty and staff, these responsibilities at the new campuses are significantly greater than those of colleagues at UW Seattle and other established campuses. This means of developing"new", that is, taking from existing resources, simply cannot be sustained in the longer term. Adequate and sufficient start-up funds are absolutely critical and necessary if UWT and UWB are to sustain current growth rates (approximately 20% over the last four years at UWT) and maintain the high quality of academic programs and services both campuses currently enjoy. Faculty and staff at UWT are committed to providing the highest quality programs and teaching-learning environment. Without start-up resources to support development of new initiatives, the quality of our offerings will suffer and productivity of our faculty and staff is in danger of faltering.
Regarding recommendation two, I support a review of the funding metric for UWT and UWB. However, I would ask that any consideration of refinement in the metric be reviewed and further refined as necessary to respond to changing characteristics of either or both campuses in the future. For example, UWT anticipates increasing numbers of full-time students in some programs in the future. In addition, at some future date perhaps UWT will offer selected lower division courses. Any funding metric needs to be responsive to these and other changes.
UWT currently participates in various three-campus collaborations, primarily through faculty initiatives and administrative work. These collaborations only serve to make the UW, all three of its campuses, better, stronger and more responsive to the needs of students for access to the highest quality university education. I support efforts to facilitate the sharing of resources, human and other, among and across all three campuses. However, any funding model to support this "sharing" should allow each campus to manage its own resources as it best sees fit.
I would comment on just a couple of additional topics. I would urge that UWT and UWB more consistently be seen and talked about, both conceptually and in reality, as "campuses" and not as simply two other schools or colleges of the University of Washington. Our campuses are very complex and in many ways operate as full service university campuses. To think about Bothell and Tacoma as though we are another school or college (in most, if not all, organization charts of the UW, we are simply listed among the schools/colleges) does not recognize the complexity of our functions and operations and differences in missions. In academic program structure and functions, responsibilities to the communities we serve, work with elected officials and staff, fund raising responsibilities, and representation in various UW groups in which most schools/colleges do not participate, to state just a few examples, UWT and UWB differ significantly from a school or college. I offer one additional specific example. Our academic programs will undoubtedly become schools or colleges one day, and in fact, some right now are larger than the smaller schools and colleges at UWS. While I hold the title of Dean, I do not function as the academic head of any program at UWT; in reality, our program "directors" function as deans.
While all three campuses share a common and uniting mission of the University of Washington. each campus also has its won unique mission, responsibility for carrying out that unique mission and a unique identity and culture. Each also serves different populations of students, and operates in ways specific and appropriate to the respective campus and communities it serves. Faculty on all three campuses are committed to fulfilling expectations of teaching, scholarship and service. However, the expectations within each of these categories and the criteria for successful performance differ on each campus.
Our unique missions will no doubt change as each campus evolves, particularly the missions of UWT and UWB as we respond to our mandate to grow and develop aggressively and rapidly. As we all work together to develop the three campus University of Washington, it is important that we embrace our commonalities, but also that we do not lose sight of our differences and the importance of supporting those differences in ways that make sense. The uniqueness of each campus must be respected and maintained and each must be allowed to flexibility and have the necessary autonomy and authority to manage its affairs in the best interest of the students it serves and of the University as a whole.
I look forward to the continuing work of the Tri-Campus Advisory Committee and working with you and Dick and many other colleagues as the three campus University of Washington develops and evolves. This is such an exciting time to be a part of this effort.
Sincerely,
Vicky Carwein
Chancellor
Copies to:
President Richard McCormick
Dean Emeritus and Chair, TCAC Norm Rose
Chancellor Warren Buck
UWT Directors
TCAC
August 1999 Report Index
Index of Responses
