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Before the oars dip their blades signaling the beginning of the Windemere Cup, before hundreds of flag-draped boats parade from Portage Bay to Lake Washington to open the boating season, the campaign to save the ASUW Shell House at the University of Washington already can be called a winner. 

Perched on the southeast corner of the University of Washington campus, where the Montlake Cut meets Union Bay, the ASUW Shell House looks as vulnerable as it does majestic. Over the course of a century, the structure built as a critical wartime post later was the home to a group of rowers who captured the nation’s imagination before becoming an all-but-forgotten artifact of the past. Now, propelled by a wave of renewed interest, the 12,000-square-foot wooden structure is the focus of an $18.5 million campaign that will restore and renovate the space.

University of Washington’s 147th commencement ceremonies are scheduled to return this June to in-person celebrations in Alaska Airlines Field at Husky Stadium for the first time since 2019. Similar in-person commencement ceremonies are being planned for UW Bothell and UW Tacoma.

University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce sat down with Vice President of Student Life Denzil Suite for a candid conversation about how COVID-19 is affecting campus operations, why classes will no longer meet in person for the rest of the quarter and whether a student-led petition had an impact on the decision.