President Robert J. Jones, Provost Tricia Serio and more than two dozen new University of Washington faculty toured Washington state last week on the annual Faculty Field Tour.
The five-day bus tour departed from the Burke Museum in Seattle on June 15 and made stops at historic sites, the state capitol, health clinics, vineyards, farms, cities and towns throughout the state.
Jones met the group in Richland to participate in a fireside chat. The following day, the UW president joined them at Schoesler Farms, the Ritzville wheat farm owned by Sen. Mark Schoesler, a Republican, and his family. Jones, an agronomist, was delighted to spend time with new faculty, meet Schoesler and get a hands-on tour of the wheat farm.
“We are a state university. We have an obligation on both sides of the mountains,” Jones said. “We have breadth that runs the entire state. And on this tour, these relatively new faculty members have a chance to experience that.”
UW’s Faculty Field Tour began more than 30 years ago to foster connection between new faculty and communities statewide. While making a counterclockwise loop around Washington, the participants learn about Washington’s varied economies, diverse geography and the places where their students grew up. The tour typically stops in Tacoma, Olympia, Mt. St. Helens, Vancouver, Toppenish, Tri-Cities, Ritzville, Spokane, Grand Coulee and Leavenworth before returning to Seattle.
Held the week following Commencement, the tour is open to faculty from all three UW campuses. This year’s cohort included an oceanographer from the College of the Environment, a writing studies professor from UW Tacoma, an economist from the College of Arts & Sciences, and UW Bothell’s executive vice provost for academic affairs, among others.
“Our students come from all over the state, right? Certainly not just Seattle,” said Pelle G. Tracy, a UW assistant professor in the Information School who was on the tour. “If you want to be an effective educator, you need to understand where your students come from and what their communities are like.”
The 2027 Faculty Field Tour is scheduled for the week of June 14.