The end of the academic year is always bittersweet; we say goodbye to this year’s graduates, yet we share their excitement as new degree-holders go forth, ready to become the leaders, innovators and change-makers that this world needs and that their UW education has prepared them to be.
I could not be more proud of the Class of 2016 or of the momentous accomplishments of our community this year. Were I to try to list them all here, this email would be too big for your inboxes, so please know that the incredible achievements across every campus, unit and department have made this year more special and rewarding than I can adequately put into words.
Later this week, the UW will award 15,770 degrees to our graduates in Bothell, Seattle and Tacoma. That includes 10,489 bachelor’s degrees, 3,990 master’s degrees, 530 professional and educational specialist degrees and 761 doctoral degrees. Congratulations, graduates! This University is a better place because you were here, and I can’t wait to see you unleash your abilities as you make our world a better place.
This has been a year of many firsts. We inaugurated our first cohort of Husky 100 recipients. A UW glaciologist helped drill the first deep ice core at the South Pole, and UW engineers received a grant to work on the first implantable device to reanimate paralyzed limbs. Burke Museum paleontologists discovered the first dinosaur fossil in Washington, while drama students are premiering plays based on the experiences of U-District residents and community groups. The women’s golf team won the national championship, while the women’s basketball team went to the Final Four. These and countless other superlatives demonstrate how, on every front, the UW is serving the public good with creativity and excellence.
This has been a year rich in innovation and discovery. We launched a new vision for improving population health and are preparing to break ground on the new Global Innovation Exchange facility in Bellevue. Our faculty continue to inspire and astound us with their ideas, discoveries and impact as teachers and scholars, with pioneering research achievements in every college and school. Professor of Medicine and Genome Sciences Mary-Claire King was awarded the 2015 National Medal of Science, while seven UW faculty members were honored by national academies this year.
This was also a challenging year. As a community we are working hard to bring about needed change to improve racial equity and diversity. Change is too slow, but it is happening. We’ve had difficult conversations, and those will continue. I pledge that I will continue to be present, engaged and transparent as we make our collective way toward change.
The end of any endeavor is a good time to look back — at our accomplishments, at what we learned, at that to which we are saying goodbye. But I hope we will also remember to keep looking forward, because all that we have done, together, will help create a world of good in the days and years to come.
Thank you, all, for the contributions you’ve made to our University and to our world — and congratulations to the Class of 2016!