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Foster Pepper’s ‘Wine, Women & What’s Happening’ keynote address  

anamari-cauce[Each year, Pacific Northwest law firm Foster Pepper hosts “Wine, Women and What’s Happening,” an event that brings together a diverse group of women leaders from around the community and across different industries. This year, President Cauce delivered the keynote address. Remarks as prepared for delivery.]

Hello everyone. I want to start by thanking all of you for your support of the UW. I know we have alumnae here, we have parents and family members of our students – and as taxpayers and friends, you are all a part of the UW family, part of what makes our university a one of the world’s great public universities, so thank you. The University of Washington is your university and we’re proud to serve you.

And a big thank you, Judy, for that kind introduction. As a former teacher, you understand how important education is to building a healthy, thriving society. And as a graduate of the UW School of Law, we are so proud to claim you as one of our own. Your work for non-profit and charitable organizations has helped improve life for people in the Puget Sound Region, especially women, and I’m honored by your invitation to speak here today.

This may be the first time I’m meeting some of you, and since you asked me to, I thought I would begin with a little bit of my own story. Since I became the “official” president of the University of Washington last October, I’ve said that if you held up pictures of all the UW presidents in history, even a 2-year-old could point out the one who’s not quite from central casting. I’m proud of the many “firsts” I represent, and I’m also proud to have been an internal candidate, because the UW and Seattle are my home.

I came to the UW in 1986 to teach in the psychology department as a clinical psychologist. I was new to Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, and, to be honest, I didn’t really expect to stay here forever. But a funny thing happened – I fell in love with this place. It seemed to me to be a place where you could do big things.  And it is!  I see that over and over at the UW, and the accomplishments of all of you in his room are also a testament to achievements of this community.

This place, the Puget Sound, was like nowhere I had ever lived – the mountains that seemed to rise from the sea; the forces of nature everywhere. The unlimited possibilities to reach and create – it inspired me then and it inspires me today.

You may have heard I was born into a family that fled from Cuba to Miami when I was a toddler. My parents, like many immigrants, were educated people forced to take factory jobs to support their children. And though they had little money, what they did have was optimism and a belief that education was the key to a better life.

That belief sustained and fueled me through my education and eventually led to, not just a career, but a calling as an educator. I went to college with the help of scholarships and I’m profoundly grateful for the sacrifices my parents made that have allowed me to stand here today. It’s why ensuring students have access to excellent education has been and continues to be a priority for me. And it’s what drives me – every day – to make this world a better place.

How does this translate into my leadership at the University of Washington? It means the crucial work we do on behalf of both Access and Excellence is deeply personal to me.

The UW provides access to an outstanding education to more than 40,000 students on three campuses and thousands more through online programs. Washington students are our priority and we are educating and preparing the young people of our region in record numbers, particularly those students who are from modest means and underrepresented groups. I’m so proud that fully a third of our students are the first in their families to attend college. We admit students without consideration of financial means and, thanks to the Husky Promise, ,low-income students who enroll at the UW will have support — nearly 32% of our Washington students – those who need our support the most — pay no tuition at all.

You’ll never hear me brag about the rise in the average entering SAT score or GPA of our incoming freshmen. Our goal is to admit the most students who will do the most good for the world. It’s to attract and welcome innovators and big thinkers, who bring uncommon perspectives and a drive to do. Because innovation is what we do very well at the UW – you don’t even have to take my word for it: Reuters has ranked the UW as the most innovative public university IN THE WORLD.

Now innovation comes from the other half of the equation which is EXCELLENCE. The UW’s impact on our students’ lives and on the vitality of our region and the world is made possible by decades of investment in academic excellence at all levels. Our research impact is well known – name pretty much any issue you are concerned about – national security, heart disease, your child’s learning patterns or the transportation problems in our region – and I can promise you that UW faculty and students are influencing that issue positively. What is perhaps less well known is the incredible teaching – and teachers – that also impact our students every day as faculty and students work together in the Husky Experience. More than 8,000 students participate in hands-on research with top faculty in their fields. Thousands of students embark on internships and service trips annually. I like to say this is a place where we take motivated students of modest means, expand their vistas and launch them into the stratosphere – where they do remarkable, world-changing things.

Now, when I talk about innovation at the UW, I’m talking about inclusive innovation – new ideas, new jobs, new companies created to tackle the challenges that face our city, our region and our world. Innovation that considers not just how we can “disrupt” but also who is being disrupted and how innovation can contribute to the public good.

Which brings me one of the major priorities for the UW that I discussed publicly for the first time yesterday.

I believe that one of – if not the biggest ways the UW can innovate in the service of public good is to put our collective talents to work improving the health and well-being of people here in the Pacific Northwest and all over the world. Yesterday, I invited our community to join in developing a new vision to put our collective excellence to good use. I shared the first steps for establishing a 25-year vision for how the UW, together with the incredible organizations and people in this region, can take work to better people’s lives by deepening our commitment to what we are calling Population Health. Like the Race & Equity Initiative the UW launched last year to combat racism and promote equity and diversity on our campuses, this vision of Population Health is about improving lives and tackling hard problems. And, not coincidentally, many of those problems are interrelated with issues of race and equity.

So, on the heels of yesterday’s talk, I’m very pleased to have the chance to share a bit about that vision with you today, because as I look around this room, I see a lot of leaders invested in the success and well-being of this community, and we need powerful people – powerful women! – to join us in making the vision of transforming public health a reality.

Seattle is one of the world’s great cities. It’s a boom town, and it may seem as if wealth and happiness are plentiful. But for many people in our city and region, the boom has passed them by, or worse, made their lives harder and more tenuous.

Many people in our city and region – our neighbors – face daily trials that are largely invisible to the world. Their children may go to underfunded or declining schools, and they may arrive at those schools hungry or malnourished. They themselves may be facing violence, drugs, or disease, and often they can’t afford to miss work to take care of a sick child or get treatment for themselves when they need it.

They may face racism and discrimination, and find themselves trapped in a multi-generation cycle of poverty. Right here in Seattle, a distance of a few miles can mean a difference in life expectancy of more than a decade. Ours is a city of opportunity, yes. But that opportunity is too often determined not by how hard you work, but by where you were born.

So what do we mean by population health? It includes more than just the absence of disease, though that’s important. Our University plays a crucial role in discovering new treatments and cures for a wide range of diseases and conditions, from emerging diseases like Zika to age-old maladies like cancer. Couple that with our work in developing countries, and the more than $275 million in charity care provided here at home by UW Medicine, and it’s clear that – with your support – our University plays an essential role in helping people live longer, happier lives here and all around the world.

Yet, there are many conditions intertwined with physical and mental health: from nutrition and education, to pollution and issues of equity. And there are many ways one can fall – or be pushed – into poverty. By identifying and addressing the causes and impacts of a broad swath of well-being indicators for populations of people – from neighborhoods to countries – we have an opportunity to truly impact health in profound ways. We have an opportunity to improve the population health of the world.

Amplifying that opportunity is the fact that, here in the Puget Sound region, there are more than 130 organizations working on population and global health. From the Gates Foundation and PATH, to organizations focusing on individual nations or specific maladies, there are few places on Earth with more opportunities for collaboration and collective impact than right here. As a global hub for computing and information technology, we have at our disposal more talent and computing power than has ever before been assembled. Big data, for example, allows us to expose and understand patterns, enabling us to diagnose – and treat – not just individuals, but entire cities – even nations.

So how do we, together, shape and implement a vision for our region over the next two and a half decades?

We start by expanding our commitment to reducing health disparities here and around the globe. Your place of birth should not determine your lifespan. Your skin color should never predestine you to greater suffering.

This vision continues with a determination to increase global security by tackling the challenges of environmental sustainability. Some of the effects of climate change cannot be forestalled, so we must also study ways to improve resilience, especially in those communities – poor communities – most likely to be harmed. And we must strive to address the social and economic inequities that make communities poor in the first place.

We will also seek to inspire the next generation of decision-makers, who will drive health policy with strong evidence and even stronger convictions. We will create new paths for students to pursue careers in population health, building synergies within the wide range of disciplines that can contribute. And we of course want these students to learn from the world’s most outstanding faculty, so we will add to the global leaders who already call the UW home.

Together, they will team up with leaders and collaborators from the communities who have the most to gain from the democratization of health evidence, unlocking the power of data for the benefit of ALL. We have in our pockets more computing power than could ever before have been imagined – let’s encourage people to use it for something more than Snapchat (or Tinder).

I believe there is no region and no university better poised to lead us toward solutions than the Puget Sound region and the University of Washington. I believe everyone in this room (and many outside of it) can contribute to the success of this vision, so that together, we can help people around the world, and right here at home, lead healthier, safer, happier and more fulfilling lives.

That’s what inspires me as a scholar. It’s what motivates me as president. And it’s what drives me as a citizen of this community and of this world.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to visit with you tonight. I look forward to meeting those of you I haven’t met yet, and to working with all of you on this and on a range of other priorities for your University and our community. And I‘m happy to answer your questions.

 

‘Distinguished Lecture on Diversity in Higher Education’ at University of Delaware’s Center for the Study of Diversity

anamari-cauce[The University of Delaware’s Center for the Study of Diversity holds an annual Distinguished Lecture on Diversity, delivered this year by President Cauce. Remarks as prepared for delivery.]

Good afternoon. It’s a pleasure and an honor to be here, or really, to be back here, at the University of Delaware, where I taught in the 1980s as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology. I want to thank Acting President Targett, Provost Grasso and Vice Provost for Diversity Henderson for welcoming me back to this wonderful institution, where you are daring to do great things for Delaware. And I want to offer a special thank you to Professor James Jones and the Center for the Study of Diversity who invited me here today.

I consider Professor Jones a mentor. Mentors are those people who you can turn to for guidance knowing that they will provide wise counsel AND that they will have your best interests in mind. Professor Jones always did just that. Director of the APA Minority Fellowship Program when I was a Fellow, he always went above and beyond to get to know us, even visiting the fellows at their home institutions. He’d call to see if all was well, connect me to opportunities for additional funding or tell me about a conference I should attend.

Even after I graduated we’d stay in touch. When he invited me to serve on the selection committee for MFP, I of course said yes. Being able to serve alongside him on this faculty, even if for a brief period of time, and winning an award that bears his name, were both amongst my proudest and most humbling experiences, so thank you Jim!

I want to start by acknowledging my own privilege. While some of you know my path hasn’t always been easy, I have certainly been given a hand or encouraged at certain points along the way that made a tremendous difference. I am grateful for that, and acknowledge that all of us begin this conversation from different places and points of view.

These past few years, up to and including the present moment, have been painful for those of us who view diversity and equity as core values; who believe in not only respecting, but also celebrating differences; who believe in justice and fairness; and who hold dear the idea that all men and women were created equal and should have equal opportunities to achieve their chosen goals and contribute to society.

We have witnessed violence and oppression aimed at people of color with little or no repercussions for the perpetrators. African-Americans, particularly young African-American men, have been gunned down in the street or stopped by police merely for walking while black. Once unimaginable xenophobic rhetoric is leveled at Muslims and immigrants in the public square. Women are still subjected to men in power discussing their bodies and their rights with scant recognition that they are autonomous beings.

In the span of just a few weeks last fall, Inside Higher Ed reported that more than a dozen college campuses were the targets of shooting and bomb threats, with many of them specifically threatening black students. We know that all too often, violence on campus is not merely a threat, but frighteningly real.

Some incidents have hit close to home. At my own institution, the University of Washington, last spring racial epithets were hurled at UW students who were marching in support of the basic truth that Black Lives Matter. The Pacific Northwest and the UW can fall into the trap of thinking of ourselves as progressive on these issues. But we are not immune, and we sometimes fall short of our ideals.

Here at the University of Delaware, as a community, you’ve experienced some of the same tensions and anguish that the UW and society at large are experiencing. A Black Lives Matter forum held here last fall was sparked by a decoration in a tree that turned out to be innocuous. Yet, for some members of the community, the sight brought to mind nooses and the specter of lynching. The peaceful rally and passionate testimony that followed were a powerful reminder that minority members of the community see the world through a lens of experience very different from the majority: implied threats and the iconography of violence are neither new to nor imagined by black and brown Americans. Your community took the opportunity to create a teaching and learning moment — a moment not just to ensure that community issues could be heard, but also to make sure we all were listening.

The terrible violence and threats of violence we have seen across the nation, on campus and off, have been disheartening. But we have also seen inspiring responses.

At the University of Missouri, we have seen how powerful student action can be as student leaders, activists, and athletes took a stand against a pervasive environment of racism and, importantly, systemic inattention to the problem. Institutions including Amherst, Princeton and Harvard Law are being asked to reconsider how – or if – modern values can be reconciled with the names and images of institutional benefactors with abhorrent histories of racial injustice. In Rhode Island, students from Brown University and Providence College joined forces in solidarity against racism, leading to a major investment in diversity by Brown.  And at the UW, we have launched what we’re calling the Race & Equity Initiative, a wide-ranging campaign to combat and eliminate racism and injustice on our campus and in our world.

What happens in academe is often a reflection of the larger world, and many of the ways in which inequality and the status quo are enforced and entrenched in the university are mirrored in the institutions and paradigms that make up western society. Explicit bigotry, racist taunts and overt discrimination are only the crudest and most visible products of a culture that is inside all of us, passed down over generations, in our cultures and histories, imbibed by new immigrants as they arrive on our shores. But it’s often subtle, sometimes out of our own consciousness.

That is why we have to actively struggle to get beyond it. We can’t just will it or ignore it away. We have to become culturally aware and self-aware.

So why, in 2016, is this the state of affairs? Why is progress so slow?

Fixing injustices means fixing broken systems, and to do that we must first understand and acknowledge that social, racial, economic and – timely, given that today is Earth Day – environmental justice all intersect. Political failure and racial segregation in Flint, Michigan created the conditions that allowed the city’s water supply to be poisoned with lead, and it’s the poor and the people of color in Flint who suffer the worst effects. It’s their children who will endure the legacy of that massive, systemic failure.

But all systems are run by people, and, our universities are populated with smart, caring, supposedly progressive, forward looking people – here in Delaware and at the UW, the youth and hope of our future. So why, then, do these problems persist on college campuses?

I was interested to read that the National Study of College Freshmen, conducted by UCLA, a study that’s been tracking the attitudes of college students nationwide, found that this generation of students views itself as committed to and comfortable with diversity.

More than 80 percent of this year’s college freshmen said that their ability to work with peers of different cultures and races was either “somewhat strong” or a “major strength.” This is a generation that clearly knows, and seems to embrace, that diversity is important to learning and preparing for success in the global marketplace.

It seems incongruous, then, that college campuses should be the setting for so much ugliness and racial tension.

Maybe part of the answer lies in another question from the UCLA study. Only about 45 percent of all freshmen believed their knowledge of other cultures or races was even somewhat strong.

This shouldn’t surprise us; our neighborhoods and schools have become more segregated since the ’70s. We don’t know much about difference because we live with people who are like us. This homogeneity is often based on class, but race and class in this country go hand in hand. College campuses like this one are generally the most diverse settings our students have ever been in. That makes it the right place to change the equation. But that also requires putting in the time to learn about others and to look inside ourselves, at our own upbringings, at what we heard our parents and neighbors whisper, at what we’ve sometimes thought or felt before we caught ourselves.

I think these two seemingly incompatible beliefs — embracing diversity but lacking knowledge of other cultures — emerges, side by side, in this data, because this generation was raised on the notion that we can be “color blind” or culture blind or gender blind. They were raised to believe these things no longer matter, or worse yet, that the way to fix whatever bias or prejudice that might still exist is to become willfully blind to it. You don’t need to know about differences to work across them, so the thinking goes, because differences just don’t matter.

But is this blindness really a good thing? And whose color, gender, faith or culture are we erasing when we go blind? What’s being “whitewashed,” so to speak?

I can remember being a brand-new assistant professor when I had just given a colloquium focusing on youth of color, when one of my colleagues commented positively about my talk and then said to me, “You know, I’ve never thought of you as a Latina. You don’t act like one.” And this was clearly supposed to be a compliment! A compliment to his enlightenment, and perhaps to the fact that I could “talk real good.”

I felt like screaming, “What’s the problem with acting like a Latina, whatever that means? That’s who I am! And why the heck should that be a problem?”

W.E.B. Dubois, the first black Harvard Ph.D., founder of the Niagara Movement that laid the foundation for the NAACP, and mentor to my mentor Jim Jones, put it best when he said in his book “The Souls of Black Folk”: “Being a problem is a strange experience — peculiar even for one who has never been anything else.”

Maybe it’s time to reset the equation and admit that, first, we are not color blind — nor should we be. And more importantly, that we cannot just escape our history and biases by pretending they don’t exist.

Instead, we must begin by facing up to them!

When I was teaching about intelligence testing in our clinical graduate program, one of my mentees, an African-American young woman, very proudly told the class that the sequencing of the human genome showed that the genetic overlap between races was 99.9 percent. A young man in the class followed her comment by sharing that the overlap between humans and chimpanzees is 96 percent (this is true; indeed, the overlap with mice is 85 percent, but that was not the point).

I knew the young man; he was pretty clueless about what he’d just said — about how he’d indirectly made the comparison between African-Americans and apes, a comparison with a long and difficult and tortured history, a history that still stings and still has power. The young woman’s face had fallen.

He hadn’t meant it that way, of course, but the pain and insult was still real.

Cluelessness is no excuse.

Lack of knowledge about the histories and cultures of those different than ourselves, coupled with confidence that we can work with others from different races and cultures, are the perfect ingredients for a Molotov cocktail, ready to explode at any minute. So, we shouldn’t be that surprised when it does.

So what can we do — what must we do — as the University of Washington, as the University of Delaware, as students and educators, as Americans and as humans? After all, this is what universities are all about. Universities are places of discovery, of civil discourse, of difficult conversations that sometimes make us uncomfortable — places where we learn new ways of looking at and acting in the world. So how can we use make use of these crucibles?

First, we can speak up and reject jokes or language that makes biased assumptions about people of color, or women, or the undocumented, or about those in wheelchairs, or, or…. They are not only untrue, but damaging.

It can be hard to go against the flow, but it’s important to say clearly that racist jokes aren’t funny, that offensive speech offends us, that we won’t be a party to it and to be prepared to walk away.

This is especially important for the people in power, the “mainstream” or “the majority” — we cannot just shift the burden to speak out onto the aggrieved party. It’s not their problem, and when they say something, it is often viewed as defensive.

When someone has the courage to say that a remark or an assumption was hurtful or insensitive, we can’t reflexively respond with “I didn’t mean it.” It’s not about what was meant, it’s about what is experienced by other people. Let’s start by saying “I’m sorry, that was insensitive. I won’t do it again.” And then not do it again.

Second, we must learn about others who are different than us, not just through human contact, but also through reading and education.

It’s the responsibility of the powerful, the people included by default, to put in the time and energy to analyze and problem-solve. It’s not the job of the aggrieved party to educate us. (And it’s usually not that hard to figure out.)

With broader knowledge, experience and awareness of other people and cultures, we’ll all be less likely to make offensive comments in the first place.

Third, let’s take the time for self-examination and reflection. Look into our hearts and heads and analyze what’s there. Be fearless. Whether you’re black or white or brown, Native American or Asian, straight or gay, we all have racial, or gender, or other stereotypes and biases and prejudices — it is impossible to grow up in this society without them. But we can learn to catch ourselves, to change our ingrained impulses, until that becomes second nature.

With time and effort, habits and thought patterns can and do change. We can get past our biases and connect — and make our world bigger and truly boundless. To my fellow educators, you have a precious opportunity to model this behavior and pass on these values to the young people who look to you for guidance and direction.

But it’s not just what we do individually, it’s what we do collectively — and as an institution.

Several years ago, the New York Times wrote about a neuroscientist investigating the roots of prejudice and noted that we have been conditioned to wear seatbelts, recycle, and eat more vegetables, but “What has not come so easily is persuading us to identify with — or even tolerate — people we perceive as outsiders…. [T]he killing of a single unarmed black teenager might prompt thousands to protest in the streets. But social policies that address the problems behind individual fates — programs to combat poverty or racial bias in policing — remain as polarizing as ever.”

Universities have not only the opportunity but also the obligation to do the work of persuading, to powerfully and consistently signal to students, through our words and actions, that inclusion, equity and fairness don’t have to be “polarizing.”

At the UW, are that work is happening all over the university and through the Race & Equity Initiative I mentioned. That initiative is a work in progress, and we’re still figuring out, and working on, what this Initiative will look like and what the different steps will be. But, in many ways it has already started — we’re following the lead of our students who said loud and clear that Black Lives Matter, and of our faculty who immediately organized a teach-in, and of the staff members in the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity who have already been working on a new Diversity Blueprint, and have initiated a series of Community Conversations to learn how to better support the communities we serve.

The initiative includes the review and implementation of recommendations from the Bias Response Task Force, which has been asked to examine how we can improve the UW’s ability to receive and respond to incidents of bias and discrimination. And it will involve work we do on faculty search committees to make sure members know about implicit bias and how it can hinder a meritocratic hiring process.

There is much work to be done, but the UW is deeply committed to doing it, and doing it well.

Here at the University of Delaware, good, important work is also underway – through the Center for the Study of Diversity, through the Center for Global and Area Studies and through the work of Vice Provost for Diversity Carol Henderson, who said recently, “Diversity is not just my office or me, but it’s the ways in which we engage with each other every day of the year and we need students to be part of that discussion and part of that practice.”

I applaud the work being done at UD, including the creation of a diversity action plan, founded on the recognition and appreciation of all human differences. By all accounts, the development of that plan, — conceived as an extension of the Delaware Will Shine strategic plan — has been and continues to be a truly inclusive and thoughtful process.

Important research and scholarship on these issues is also happening here. The CSD’s model of Diversity Competency, the “DC6” holds great promise as a tool to apply greater rigor and meaning to the university’s multicultural course requirement. By requiring that courses meet consistent and substantive criteria to qualify for the requirement, not only will student learning and awareness of diversity increase, but the institution as a whole is sending a clear signal that diversity MATTERS, that inclusion and cross-cultural understanding are not just rubber stamps or lip service.

Dr. Stephanie Fryberg of the UW conducted research with Dr. Rebecca Covarrubias of this institution, which they actually presented here last year as part of the CSD’s Symposium for Student Success. Fryberg and Covarrubias conducted an intervention with American Indian middle-schoolers in which they reframed education in terms of cultural and familial concepts of American Indian groups rather than white, middle-class European concepts. The Indian students’ motivation increased and their performance on national tests improved, and no wonder – getting a taste of the cultural validation that the majority experiences every day promotes an appetite for learning.

In a similar vein, the CSD is doing interesting and valuable research on the subject of microaggressions. These kinds of routine, almost invisible (to the aggressor at least) exchanges that reinforce a person’s membership in a minority group are real and persistent and they add up. They can also be inflicted by those of us who consider ourselves to be above such things, including me, meaning I’ve got more to learn, too. And let’s be clear: it’s not the job of the aggrieved to “grow a thicker skin” or shake it off; it is the job the majority to think, listen, learn and ultimately, do better.

I want to return, for a moment, to a few of the characteristics that the Diversity Competency Model identifies as core to interacting respectfully and productively with different kinds of people, particularly the concepts of “diversity self-awareness” and “personal and social responsibility.”

I was born in Cuba — and in Cuba, like most Caribbean countries, racism has its own distinct look and feel. Words that would sound racist in this country, like “mi negrita” (my black one), are terms of endearment. But, that doesn’t mean that a color line doesn’t exist, although it may be placed in a different part of the color spectrum.

I learned from my parents that I was lucky to be light-skinned — my religious aunt, who went to Mass every day and who taught me compassion and charity, also taught me that white skin was a gift from God, so we should be extra kind to those who were darker.

How incredibly condescending and “white” of her.

They were good people, whom I admire and love to this day — but they held beliefs that I won’t sugarcoat by calling them anything other than racist. And they weren’t so great about gender equity either. They laughed at men who were “effeminate,” and, by the way, they also thought Anglos had loose morals.

Because they had no real power, at least not in this country, the effects of their biases didn’t extend far.

But knowing what I know about families and familial influence, not to mention all I know about the larger societal context and how it affects us, in my most honest moments I have to ask: How can these biases, these prejudices, this racism not be part of who I am? And because I am in a position of power, it can matter, so I must be self-aware and I must be personally and socially responsible.

Achieving self-awareness is much harder than it sounds! The powerful and those in the majority must do the difficult work of learning and acknowledging that a lack of awareness inevitably leads to the – often inadvertent – creation of a hostile climate for those in the minority.

This is a room full of leaders and future leaders and what you believe, how you act, will matter.

This change will not happen overnight, much to the dismay of some of the student activists I engage with – and to my disappointment too. And, let’s be candid, there is and probably always will be a tension between what students activists are calling for and what can actually be achieved. As an administrator, the challenge is keeping the dialogue and engagement productive even when we can’t always come to complete agreement.

There’s no question that student activism plays an important role in driving change and progress in universities, and at many moments in history, well beyond the campus. I mentioned earlier the University of Missouri protests that resulted in the president stepping down, but other examples that come to mind include the Columbia Apartheid protests that led to that university’s divestiture from companies that did business with that regime, and ongoing fossil fuel divestment protests at colleges and universities around the country. As result of that movement, over 470 institutions have divested $2.6 trillion in fossil fuel investments.

But student activism also plays a part in educating students about the reaches – and limits – of their power, and about how (and how not) to engage productively in debate with the decision makers. Sometimes student demands cannot be met; they may be logistically, legally or financially impossible, or they may curtail others’ right to speak. That UCLA national study that I mentioned earlier also found that about 71 percent of freshmen surveyed said that “colleges should prohibit racist or sexist speech on campus,” which is the highest percentage of positive responses to that question on record. Support for banning “extreme speakers” from campus has also increased. It’s clear that the line between inclusivity and the muzzling of disparate viewpoints has never been thinner or harder to walk.

As an administrator, being the subject of protests has taken some getting used to, mostly because historically, I’m more used to being on the side of the protesters.

Several years ago, when I was appointed Chair of American Ethnic Studies at UW, I knew I was dealing with a fraught and politicized situation, but I was not prepared for the onslaught; my first day on the job, I found the hallway outside my office papered with a picture of me with cross-hairs superimposed on my face and emblazoned with the headline “Under Fire.” Students protested my appointment with a sit-in that shut down the administration building during a Regents meeting. I had to dig deep within myself to find my center.

When you grow up wielding power from the margins, the move to the center can be very jarring. But I think that experience has been valuable to me in that it has allowed me to assume positive intent on the part of student activists, even when the rhetoric gets rough and sometimes personal. As educators and administrators, part of the job is remembering that students really are in it for the right reasons, and, if we can remember that we share a vision of a better world, we can keep moving forward toward it.

At the University of Washington, we are guided by the words “Be Boundless,” and inequality is anathema to that ideal. Being boundless does not mean pretending that we are or even should be color blind; rest assured, black and brown people can’t forget they are black and brown in a white-dominated society. And lesbian, gay and trans people can’t ignore the ignorant and often hateful things that are said and even legislated at their expense. Women can’t disregard the reality of the gender wage gap that pays them 79 cents for every dollar their male counterpart receives. Being boundless means not just accepting but welcoming and making space for diversity in ways that enhance the entire community’s experience and understanding.

While I’ve talked about some of my personal experiences and the responsibility of the individual, as president of an institution that in many ways shapes the city of Seattle and the whole Pacific Northwest region, I am perhaps most concerned about the effects of systemic or institutional racism, the biases and barriers that diminish our capacity as a society, or in this case, as a university, to truly fulfill our public promise of both access and excellence, indeed of access to excellence.

I believe that conversations like this one, initiatives like the Diversity Action Plan and investment in institutions like the Center for the Study of Diversity the Center for Global and Area Studies are how we start to grow our own awareness, learn to hold ourselves accountable, and finally, to stop being the problem, through change and action.

After all that I’ve said here today, the message I want to leave you with is this: I am hopeful. I’m immensely hopeful, because these conversations are happening and young people are engaged on the issues that matter. Yes, we continue to see racism, and misogyny and transphobia and homophobia, but it’s worth noting that we ARE seeing it, and speaking up about it and doing something to end it. However painful it is to be faced with these problems, it will be far more painful, maybe even fatal in the long run, if we don’t face them. We do that by linking arms and working together, by talking and, more importantly, listening. There is work to be done, and I know we can do it.

Thank you.

More students participating in foreign exchange programs a top priority

Caroline Kennedy
U.S. Ambassador to Japan Caroline Kennedy

Visiting Tokyo this week, I had the distinct honor and privilege of meeting the U.S. Ambassador to Japan, the Honorable Caroline Kennedy. We had a substantive discussion about President Obama’s commitment to doubling the number of students participating in foreign exchange programs, which the Ambassador also expressed as a top priority.

The University of Washington has active and longstanding student exchange relationships with nine Japanese institutions: Aoyama Gakuin University, Keio University, Kobe University, Kyoto University, Kyushu University, Osaka University, Tokyo Institute of Technology, University of Tokyo and Waseda University. In 2014, 59 UW students studied in Japan.

We value and support our partnerships with leading Japanese universities. The UW and Waseda University have been building collaborations across several different areas and have begun a new partnership with Waseda’s Center for Learning, Teaching and Technology. This venture leverages the skills of UW staff and faculty in pedagogical innovation by pairing them with peers from Waseda to develop a truly collaborative project.

In addition, the UW is one of Waseda’s key American partners in developing a Global Leadership Fellows Program: The UW, Berkeley, Columbia, Georgetown, Johns Hopkins and Dartmouth send outstanding students with leadership potential to study a specially developed curriculum at Waseda. In turn, these universities receive Waseda students whom they mentor in leadership studies.

From our iconic campus cherry trees to our state’s rich history with Japan, the UW treasures its longstanding relationship with our Japanese partners. Over 100 years ago, in 1908, 15 Japanese students helped found the International Students Club, and now, in 2014, Japanese is the second-most studied language at the University and demand for the study of this country’s history, culture and language has never been stronger. This warms my heart more than ever, as my affection for Japan has only deepened since I first traveled there more than four decades ago.

We will continue to seek opportunities to deepen the UW’s relationship with our Japanese friends and partners, and celebrate our mutual collaborations — past, present and future.

CNN Films explores the Ivory Tower

We are in the midst of an important national conversation about the value of a university education. CNN Films has explored the costs and benefits of a college degree in a provocative documentary called “Ivory Tower.” The film takes a broad look at issues many universities are facing, including poor graduation rates, the growing student debt load and the challenges and obstacles — both financial and, in many cases, cultural — faced by low-income and first-generation students. And while I applaud the exploration of these issues and encourage you to watch it, I also offer what can be lost in the discussion: that some public universities are pioneering solutions in passionate, world-class ways. The University of Washington is leading the pack.

The role of public higher education as an engine of social mobility and societal advancement is at the core of what the UW stands for as one of the world’s great public universities. A central tenet of our mission is to do all we can to ensure that any student who has worked hard and earned the academic credentials to be admitted to the UW can be here, regardless of economic circumstances. We are proud of our record as a gateway to boundless opportunity for all students. As a society, we must ensure this gateway continues to be open.

A recent study by the Economic Policy Institute found that in 2013 Americans with a four-year degree earned on average 98 percent more per hour than those without a college degree. Similarly, the U.S. Census Bureau reports that the lifetime earnings of college graduates are nearly $1 million more than those with a high school diploma. For individuals, a university degree can be the difference between poverty and prosperity.

College graduates are also most likely to embrace — as part of their life’s endeavors — a commitment to making the world a better place. They are 43 percent more likely to volunteer in their communities, according to Tufts University’s civicyouth.org, whose data also suggest that more than two-thirds of young people with bachelor’s degrees engage with our political process: They vote. For American society, indeed for the world, these virtues are the requirements of our shared progress. They include the understanding that prosperous and vibrant communities, healthy families, active citizenship — indeed democracy itself — often require a commitment to “we” ahead of “me.”

At the UW, we certainly have not escaped the challenges of the past decade. The great recession accelerated a decades-long shift in the business model for public higher education, reducing state support and placing the lion’s share of costs squarely on students and their parents. But as is our way at the UW, we have faced these issues head-on and with proven success.

For more than 150 years, we have been providing students from all walks of life one of the finest educations in the world. At the same time, we’ve developed programs to foster the economic diversity of our campus populations for generations to come. A third of UW undergraduates receive support through the Husky Promise, a program that guarantees that full tuition and standard fees will be covered by grant or scholarship support for eligible Washington state students. Thirty percent of our private endowment funds scholarships. We’ve built academic support programs to help all students be successful, including the 30 percent who are the first in their families to attend college. Our graduation rates are high, with more than 80 percent of students graduating within a six-year period.

We have proven and continue to prove that a public university can be both racehorse and workhorse: providing a world-class education while still being accessible to all.

The mission of higher education will continue to be debated, in political venues, in classrooms, in community centers, in films. There are important issues for all of us to address. But at the UW, we remain resolutely optimistic. Every day, thousands of young people pursue their dreams here — some would say the American dream — and accomplish extraordinary things. We are committed to remaining their gateway and guide — for the good of all of us.

Sincerely,
Michael K Young signature
Michael K. Young

Your comments and engagement are welcome through UW Impact.

Saluting our servicemen and servicewomen

At the University of Washington, we strive to remember our veterans not just during Veterans Appreciation Week, but year-round. Across our campuses, monuments honoring those who have served greet us: the Medal of Honor Memorial; the 58 sycamore trees lining Memorial Way, reminding us of the UW students and faculty who lost their lives during World War I in service to our country; and the central flagpole bearing the names of students, faculty and staff who never returned to the UW from the battlefields of World War II.

These tangible symbols remind us of the intangible values our United States veterans have worked — and valiantly fought — to uphold. Values including freedom, peace, opportunity and justice. They help us reflect on the meaning of courage, selflessness and determination.

But we know that monuments and our words of gratitude alone are not enough. Across the University, we are working to strengthen and expand programs to better support our veterans as they embark on the next phase of their journey.

There are more than 40 programs for veterans, active-duty military and their dependents across the UW’s three campuses.For instance, at UW Tacoma — which Victory Media designated as a military-friendly school for the fourth year in a row — the Veterans Incubator for Better Entrepreneurship program, or VIBE, is engaging veterans with entrepreneurial talent. The program recognizes veterans’ unique leadership and problem-solving skills and empowers them to pursue their own businesses.

 

Also at UW Tacoma, we’re responding to the growing demand from the public and private sectors for professionals who can deal with cyber threats. This year, the Milgard School of Business partnered with the UW Tacoma Institute of Technology to launch a new master’s degree in cybersecurity and leadership. It was developed as a direct response to the needs of the military community — and our nation.

At UW Bothell, a recently developed course is successfully helping veterans navigate the transition from military life to academic life.And the UW School of Law is working with the Northwest Justice Project to start a veterans law clinic to address legal needs in areas of veteran’s administration and mental health, housing, consumer issues and family law.

As students and teachers, faculty and staff, neighbors and friends, we are all enriched by our veteran and military community. And so it is of vital importance that we support veterans through research that will positively impact people’s lives and help us create a world of good. To give just one example, through projects funded by the National Institutes of Health, the UW School of Nursing is contributing to pain management research at Madigan Army Hospital at Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

Various UW organizations, including researchers in the UW School of Public Health, have created PEARLS, a national evidence-based treatment program for depression. While the program has focused primarily on senior populations, it is now expanding to treat older veterans in King County as well.

Through all of these collective efforts, we are proud to be ranked No. 2 in the nation in U.S. News & World Report’s listing of the Best Colleges for Veterans.

Yet, we are not complacent. We will continue to do more to support our veterans, active-military service members and their families through research as well as educational and employment opportunities. On behalf of the entire University, thank you to all Husky veterans for your service, leadership and commitment to our country and our communities.

Boundless opportunities to serve Spokane

This summer, leaders from the University of Washington, Washington State University, and the Spokane community met three times in an effort to develop a collaborative path forward for expanding medical education and research in Spokane. Both Universities came to the table with different perspectives on how best to meet the economic and workforce needs of Spokane and the state, and we were privileged to have community leadership present to encourage and push us to “think outside the box” and challenge our respective positions. The conversations were productive, timely and important and have led to a new opportunity for the UW’s WWAMI program in Spokane.

At these meetings, UW Regent Orin Smith and I advocated for a new, united vision [PDF] or Spokane’s Academic Health Science and Research Center, anchored by a four-year medical school operated through an expanded and remodeled WWAMI partnership. This new, “mega-brand” partnership would immediately expand the four-year medical school in Spokane and fully capture the highest economic value for Spokane without unnecessary duplication of taxpayer costs. The vision aligned and built on the $1.6 billion vision developed by Tripp Umbach and championed by the Spokane business community in 2010.

In order to fully realize this collaborative vision and provide the best education for our students in Spokane, both the UW and WSU needed to be fully committed to its success. At our final meeting together, WSU leaders indicated that their priority, first and foremost, would be the creation of their own independent medical school. While this wasn’t the outcome we were hoping for, we respect WSU’s choice.

Out of respect for our different opinions and acknowledging that our medical students and the community need us to move forward, both institutions agreed to proceed in our own individual directions. UW and WSU leadership signed an initial Memorandum of Understanding [PDF] (MOU) last week agreeing to mutually dissolve our WWAMI partnership and setting up a process to fully transition the WWAMI program and associated state resources from Washington State University to the University of Washington in Spokane. If this transition and transfer are successfully completed prior to January, both Universities will commit to remaining neutral on respective proposals for medical education expansion next legislative session. Much work remains regarding the transition, but this MOU provides a framework for moving forward.

So, what’s next for the University of Washington in Spokane?

While the MOU marks the end of a successful, 40-year partnership with Washington State University, it also marks the beginning of boundless opportunities for the University of Washington and the Spokane community.

First, we remain 100% committed to the ongoing success of UW medical students and our four-year medical school in Spokane. The cornerstone of the UW’s WWAMI program is that it provides the #1 primary and rural medicine education program in the country to local communities across our region, and we’re committed to maintaining this standard of excellence for our students and the Spokane community. We believe the community-based WWAMI model, combined with investment in new residency programs in Eastern Washington, remains the most efficient, cost-effective and high-quality approach to solve the state’s physician shortage.

Second, we will begin a process with WSU to transition UW Medicine’s WWAMI program and the associated state resources back from WSU to the UW in Spokane. This is an important step. In order for us to expand medical education and research without delay, we need to ensure the ongoing viability of the UW School of Medicine in Spokane. President Floyd has assured me and the community members who participated in our discussions that WSU remains supportive of the ongoing success and growth of UW Medicine’s program in Spokane, so we anticipate this transition can happen smoothly and with little delay.

Next, we move full speed ahead with our plans to ask the state legislature for funding to double our medical school class size in Spokane. Paul Ramsey and Chancellor Lisa Brown jointly announced this plan a year ago at the GSI Annual Meeting in September 2013, and we intend to fulfill that promise. We have submitted our 2015–17 budget request to the Governor, and funding for this initiative will be a top legislative priority for the UW during the next legislative session in Olympia. The University of Washington is prepared to proceed with medical school expansion independently, but we also look forward to creating new and expanded academic and research partnerships with other higher education institutions in Spokane.

Finally, we are in the process of looking at several key strategies to expand and deepen our engagement in Spokane, and to improve our medical education program to best serve the needs of the city and our state. The Medical Education Access and Affordability Taskforce that I convened earlier this year will make recommendations in this regard later this month, and additional guidance will be available from Tripp Umbach in late October. I’m excited about the University of Washington’s future in Spokane. Stay tuned for major announcements later this month.

For additional information on the MOU signed last week, and for ongoing updates about our plans for expansion in Spokane, I encourage you to visit our website, uw.edu/spokanemedschool. Thank you for your continued commitment to your community, to our state’s medical students, and to the University of Washington.

Questioning the answer on the STEM shortage

There’s a talent shortage brewing in the Pacific Northwest. As the boundless opportunities continue to grow in our backyard, critical fields in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) are demanding more highly trained leaders, doers and thinkers. In fact, the Boston Consulting Group projects a shortage of 25,000 jobs in the next couple of years, most notably in the computer science and engineering (CSE) field.

The UW is undaunted in our pursuit to meet this pressing need for our state. This past June, the UW conferred more than 15,000 new graduate, professional and undergraduate degrees to our students. That’s more than 40 percent of all bachelor’s degrees and close to 80 percent of graduate and professional degrees in the state. Almost 45 percent of these degrees were in “high demand” fields, with one third in STEM areas. In fact, the UW has increased our STEM degree production by almost 50 percent in the past 5 years.

Despite our passion and drive toward progress, we simply must do more to support our students and our state’s thriving STEM economy. One step is to build a new computer science facility that will certainly help address this shortage, but also ensure students in non–computer science disciplines get an opportunity to take classes in this field. There are virtually no fields of study at any university that don’t require some basic knowledge of computer systems and programming. It is vital to how we teach and do research in nearly all fields — even English and history.

Expanding our capacity will allow us to roughly double our CSE graduates from 300 to 600 per year. A significant increase in CSE graduates will meet the market demands from innovators in our city and our region. And as the center for training outstanding STEM professionals, the UW will embolden the Puget Sound’s reputation as the crown jewel of technology, innovation and STEM leadership in the Pacific Northwest.

UW Professional and Continuing Education — access for all

A restless passion for serving the citizens of Washington state has inspired the UW’s mission for more than 150 years, and our continuing education program — known as UW Professional & Continuing Education (UWPCE) — has been a huge contributor to our success. Since UWPCE’s inception in 1912, its goal has remained the same: to increase access to education with programs for everyone.

From humble beginnings over a century ago, UWPCE has evolved to offer a great diversity of programs designed for “nontraditional” learners of all kinds, including children, adults, working professionals and seniors. In 1912, UWPCE served 48 students. Today, nearly 50,000 nontraditional students participate annually in its programs, more than doubling the UW’s current footprint at home and around the globe. Classes covering timely and timeless topics are offered at flexible and convenient times, enabling lifelong learners to keep pace with the present while learning from the past and preparing for future challenges.

All UWPCE programs are overseen by the vice provost for UW Educational Outreach (UWEO), and starting in mid-October Rovy Branon will take the helm. Rovy comes to the UW from the University of Wisconsin–Extension, where he served as associate dean of online learning and technology within the university extension’s Division of Continuing Education, Outreach and E-Learning. He succeeds recently retired Vice Provost David Szatmary, whose innovative leadership during his 30-year career at the University helped UWEO rise to national prominence.

To aid the community’s quest for learning, the UW offers continuing education opportunities in addition to those managed by UWPCE. These include Access, a program that allows Washington state residents over age 60 to audit regular classes on a space-available basis; the Experimental College, run by ASUW; and specialized professional training programs for those in select business, dental, legal, medical, nursing and other fields, administered by individual schools, colleges and departments.

The UW has a proud history of providing the wider community access to education, and we will continue to develop more boundless ways to serve students. We look forward to sharing our passion for education, no matter when, where or how Huskies prefer to learn.

Here is an up-to-date listing of UWPCE-managed, fee-based programs:

President Young welcomes students to the UW at Freshman Convocation

Freshman Convocation
Sept. 21, 2014
Speech transcript

WELCOME to the University of Washington.

I remember what seems not so many years ago sitting in seats very much like those in which you are sitting when I was being oriented as a freshman.

I remember days full of new experiences, new friends, new challenges, new opportunities.  Most clearly, I remember being overwhelmed and a more than a little daunted by almost everything.

But, over time, I came to understand that these full, demanding, overwhelming days were just a series of moments.

Moments of fun, boring moments, trivial moments, some were difficult and more than a few were happy and exciting.  There were forgettable and memorable moments.

I came to understand most acutely that within the series of moments, some were important.

I learned that WHAT I DID with those important moments was itself important, it mattered.

Now, I know you better than you might think.  I’ve read many of your applications.  I’ve met many of you.  You are among the most amazing, talented students who have ever walked onto this campus.  You are brilliant, powerful, curious, ambitious.

More than any other group of students I know, you have the capacity to seize important moments when they present.

I remember clearly, a moment in my sophomore year, one of those important moments that mattered, though I can’t say I understood that at the time.

I was sitting in the back of one of my classes (where I always sat in all my classes), devoutly hoping to avoid the attention of the professor (as I always did).  The course was designed to introduce us to research methodologies in the field of political science and prepare us to do some actual research of our own.  We prepared short research proposals of various kinds every week and the professor evaluated them (or, perhaps more correctly, he ripped them apart).

One day, the professor asked whether Michael Young was present in the class.  Crossing my fingers that there was another Michael Young, I put my head down and refrained from raising my hand.  He repeated his inquiry and I had no choice but to acknowledge my attendance.

He then ordered me to come talk to him immediately after class.  You have no idea how long 50 minutes is when that Damocles sword is hanging over your head.  I don’t remember anything else he said during that class, but I well remember wondering whether my father might be willing to reemploy me in his grocery store as a bag boy after I was kicked out of college.

To my utter amazement, after class the professor told me that he had seen some promise in some of the papers I had submitted and wondered whether I would like to be a research assistant on a large-scale research project he was about to begin.

I accepted with alacrity and it changed my life.

Do you know, I can draw a direct line from that moment to the moment I was sitting in my first law school class.  The list of things I learned while working with that professor is long.  I learned how to research, how to prepare an analysis, how to write a coherent argument, how to analyze data.  It helped me realize my ambition to go to law school.

I was fortunate.  That generous professor played a major role in the formation of my career.

This is a university of limitless opportunities—and generous professors.  Seek out those opportunities, make your own moments, and especially, be willing to accept help from others.

And whether the moment is expected or unexpected, seize it.

I had done well in college, in part because I had a good short-term memory.  I could master most of the material in the textbook in relatively short order and repeat it back on the test with some efficiency.  That isn’t to say I really learned the material in any useful sense, but I didn’t view that as my highest priority.  I was skiing five days a week and that seemed to take precedence.

So when I got to law school, I thought the same skill set would suffice.  The professor would assign cases to read, I would memorize and repeat them back on the exam and the professor would dutifully give me a good grade.  I’d go skiing five days a week and all would be in its proper order.

Things proceeded well right up until that first class.

The professor assigned the cases, which I memorized, fully prepared to dutifully repeat them back.

Then the professor asked the class, “Why is this relevant?”

“Because it’s written in the book,” I thought to myself.

A classmate responded with that exact answer and was promptly eviscerated by the professor.

Then it got worse.

The professor went on to ask why the judge’s reasoning in the case was wrong.

Again, I rehearsed my father’s phone number and pondered whether that bag boy job in his supermarket might still be available.

But I had wanted to be a lawyer my entire life and I decided that I wouldn’t let a little thing like being entirely clueless deter me.  So I started to study non-stop every single day.  I remember starting early in the morning and ending long after any sensible person should have been in bed.

I refined my approach to the information.  Every time I read a line or reflected on an argument, I questioned its relevance, its coherence, its correctness.  What was the purpose and result of every decision?  What impact might that decision have on other areas of law or on human behavior?  I took nothing for granted and questioned everything.

I answered every question and then I questioned every answer.

Is the expert wrong?  What does this really mean?  Is it right?  Is it possible?  Is it plausible or probable?  Is it moral or ethical?  Is it true?

I was, for the first time in my life, THINKING FOR MYSELF!!!!

And, just as I can draw a straight line from my experience in that sophomore political science class to my first day of law school, I can draw a straight line from that first day of law school to where I stand today, presiding over this wonderful university.

From studying fervently out of sheer terror, to developing a PASSION for law that has taken me all over the world, I have learned to engage in deep and meaningful exploration.

You will have many moments while you’re here to do the same.

For instance, you may read The Iliad and The Odyssey.  And when you do, ask:

What does it tell you about the human instinct and quest for power, for glory, for riches, for peace, and how does that help you better understand what is going on in the Middle East, or Asia, or even Washington, D.C.?

What does it tell you about leadership and persuading people to do something?  What does that say about how to run a corporation or a non-profit organization?

What does it teach about loyalty and rivalry?  How does our understanding the genesis of the animosity between Agamemnon and Achilles help us better understand what is happening in Iraq or Syria and how could we use that understanding to promote a more just, peaceful world?

What does the relationship between Odysseus and Penelope teach about love?  About commitment?  About how to deal with annoying boyfriends?

Maybe while you’re here, you might learn how to develop and program a computer game.

And when you do, ask whether it can be used to teach math or science to young children, just as Professor Popovich and his colleagues do in the Center for Game Learning.

Or ask whether it can be used to cure a disease, just as Professor David Baker and Biochemistry student Brian Koepnick and their colleagues do in the Institute for Protein Design, where they team up with gamers who play FOLDIT, the game they developed to learn how to design proteins that might cure AIDS or Ebola.

You might learn how to speak Japanese or Chinese or Arabic, and when you do, ask:

How do the grammatical constructions of these languages affect the way people think, the way they interact, the way they make decisions, the way they learn…?

You might study the oceans, and when you do, ask how we might harness its great energy to produce power and reduce greenhouse gasses, or how we can predict earthquakes that produce devastating Tsunamis or how we might preserve the coral reefs and their essential functions.

You might study global health, and, when you do, ask how we develop – and, equally importantly, implement – policies across the globe that genuinely and effectively improve health outcomes, like Professor Chris Murray and his colleagues in the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation.

FRIENDS, THERE ARE ANSWERS LOCKED INSIDE YOUR QUESTIONS, so you CAN and SHOULD ask them.

The process of asking questions AND QUESTIONING THE ANSWERS is the very purpose of this great university and it is YOUR purpose while you are here.

Asking the questions and questioning the answer will lead you to places you can hardly imagine.

It certainly did for me. I was born in a small lumber town in northern California.  My high school graduating class had 50 students. Before college, I had never been out of the United States; I had never visited more than 4 states; I spoke no foreign languages.  Indeed, I don’t remember ever meeting anyone from another country before I went to college.  I hadn’t read virtually any of the cannon of great literature. I’d dissected a frog and had blown up one chemistry lab, but that was my entire exposure to science.

By seizing my moments, I was able to do things of which I am very proud.

And I know you will too.

LOOK UNDER YOUR SEATS.

You will find a tee shirt that bears one of many messages.  The size may not fit you, and you can exchange it on the way out.  But the messages on the tee shirts will fit you, no matter which one you get.  These are the messages:

Dare to do.

Be the first.

Question the answer.

Together we will.

Passion never rests.

Be a world of good.

Driven to discover.

And, my personal favorite, Undaunted.

These themes reflect the amazing potential in each of you to recognize your moments.

You will seize opportunities.

You will be boundless.

You will question the answer.

You will change this world for good.

Great universities, like this one, are designed to help you believe in yourself.

This University is a network of extraordinary professors, exceptionally dedicated staff and remarkable alumni spread all over the world – all united in a shared belief in the future.

And you are that future.

Welcome to your moments.  Welcome to the University of Washington.

Kids in college: The new role of parents

Acceptance into a university is a defining moment in the life of a student. And for parents, it is similarly pivotal. After taking some time to savor the news and celebrate, many parents relish the vision of their son or daughter standing on the threshold of independence and a new identity, ready to embark on the long journey from home to college to kismet.

With summer days dwindling, the start of school is only weeks away. Following on the heels of other parents, you are about to step into a whole new role. Congratulations and welcome!

At the UW we believe that a strong student-parent-college partnership is essential to the success of every new Husky. Traditionally, we have engaged parents in this relationship through Parent Orientation, a summer program dedicated to demystifying the UW experience. Managed by the Office of First Year Programs, Parent Orientations provide opportunities for parents and families to learn all about the UW and the many resources we offer to help students transition to university life. One of the great outcomes of this program has been an expansion of our parents-as-partners activities.

Last spring, through Parent and Family Programs, a Division of Student Life initiative, we launched our first Husky Parents 101, a free educational workshop geared toward parents of all undergraduate students. The response was incredible thanks to our topic, “student career development,” which was identified as the number one area of interest in a 2013 survey of parents and families. Event attendance reached capacity just three hours after it was announced. We were just as thrilled by the tremendously positive post-event comments — a strong indicator of how much parents appreciate and enjoy being a part of their student’s support team.

Focus groups hosted by Parent and Family Programs are another way for parents to partner with the UW community. The gatherings are small, allowing for more opportunities to dig deeper. At our first two meetings this year, parents learned tips to quickly become involved with the University, how to successfully participate in a student’s experience without being intrusive and where to find the best resources about careers, internships, majors and job skills development. In turn, the UW received some creative ideas to better support parents and their students’ Husky Experience.

The UW is frequently asked if it offers a Parent and Family Weekend, and the answer is “we’re working on it.” Plans to expand parent volunteer opportunities are also under way. In the meantime, schools and colleges across our three campuses are working to increase opportunities to loop parents and families into UW activities. We are excited to forge ahead on this path. We know parents are not just writing checks anymore. In our modern world, parents are having a huge impact, a fact that is confirmed each time Marti and I visit China and are greeted by crowds of enthusiastic parents eager to engage in the development of their college students.

We can’t wait to partner with you and all our active Husky parents to ensure that your student has a great Husky Experience, successfully graduates from college and reaches a meaningful, rewarding destiny.