TCAC
August 1999 Report Index
Index of Responses
| UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON |
October 26, 1999
Provost Lee Huntsman
Office of the Provost
301 Gerberding Hall, Box 351237
Dear Lee:
Thank you for attending the first Tri-Campus Advisory Committee (TCAC) meeting of the 1999-2000 academic year. We appreciated the opportunity to discuss the initial report for the TCAC with you as well as new agenda issues for the coming year.
Given that the TCAC has been in existence for only eight months and that it will be a standing committee meeting regularly, it was particularly important to have this exchange with you. Inevitably, in the early life of a brand new advisory committee, there is a period when the group's convener (you in this case) and the group's members (The TCAC) converge on a common understanding of the committee's role and mission. I thought that this recent conversation with you facilitated that convergence. Accordingly, I felt it was worthwhile to prepare a written summary of your responses to the report as well as your comments about future agendas. This letter, containing that summary:
"The need for an increase in the amount of resources applied to the start-up aspects of growth at UW Bothell and UW Tacoma" (page 5 of the Executive Summary and pages 4-5 of the report's main body).
You agree with the TCAC's analysis of the importance of start-up funds and will pursue seeking appropriate changes in funding but have elected not to do so with the legislature during the session commencing in January 2000.
The need for "a refinement of the funding metric for operating UW Bothell and UW Tacoma" (page 5 of the Executive Summary and pages 6-8 of the report's main body.)
You agree that the arguments advanced by the committee about the need for refinement of the funding metric definitely merit attention. Following a more exhaustive analysis of the present allocation models, you have indicated that the UW administration will work with the staff in the legislative and/or executive branches of state government to make appropriate improvements.
"The development of institutional procedures which facilitate the application of human resources across all three campuses to the effective and continuing development of the Three Campus University of Washington and, therefore, of UW Bothell, UW Seattle, and UW Tacoma" (page 5 of the Executive Summary and pages 8-11 of the report's main body).
This particular piece of advice addresses, in part, the fourth bullet in your January 5, 1999 charge letter to the TCAC, namely, "supporting new program development involving UW Bothell and UW Tacoma by recommending policies and processes that facilitate program development, approval and institution."
You comments at the meeting were consistent with the analysis of this subject advanced by the committee, but as I recall, you did not address the committee's specific recommendations in your discussion with the group (e.g., increasing the portion of the funding in Tools for Transformation to be utilized for three-campus initiatives, establishing a fund to be used for the support of short-term, multi-campus collaborative efforts).
As the discussion moved away from the report, you urged the committee to consider some elements of three campus development as the natural order of the work of the university community and not as an "add-on" effort.
You commented on the amazing dynamics at work on the UW Campuses vis a vis the quality and quantity of proposals for Tools for Transformation and the UIF and the importance of having a central administrative structure which enabled this innovative work by faculty, students and staff. (As the TCAC considers policies intended to foster this enabling, you invited the committee to consider themselves as part of the administration.) You challenged to committee to paint a vision of the three campus university without being prescriptive and, in so doing, to outline what it will take to enable that vision to come to fruition.
You recommend that, in the course of the continuing work of the committee, time be spent on articulating near-term opportunities the administration might explore to advance the three campus university as well as on"more revolutionary notions" (e.g., tackling the ramifications of questions such as "how long will residency last (or be effective) and then what?")
Thank you again for visiting with the committee. Contact between you and the TCAC is, in my view, critical to the committee's success, particularly in the early phases of its work.
Sincerely,
Norman J. Rose
Chair, Tri-Campus Advisory Committee
UW Bothell Dean Emeritus, Professor Emeritus
Copies to:
Members of the Tri-Campus Advisory Committee
UWB Chancellor, Warren Buck
UWT Chancellor, Vicky Carwein
UWB Vice Chancellor, Stan Slater
TCAC
August 1999 Report Index
Index of Responses
