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Happy Birthday, Bill Gates Sr.

Photo of Bill Gates Sr.Bill Gates Sr. is a big man with an even bigger heart. On this, the occasion of his 90th birthday, we salute the immense contributions he’s made to our University.

Ever since he earned his undergraduate and law degrees from the UW, Gates has been the University of Washington’s biggest champion. He served for 15 years on the Board of Regents; earned the UW Alumni Association’s Alumnus Summa Laude Dignatus Award; chaired Campaign UW: Creating Futures, which raised $2.7 billion; has been a longtime and active current member of the UW Foundation Board; and has been a vocal, lifelong Husky football fan — the list goes on and on from there.

His wisdom, courage and compassion have made our world and our community a vastly better place. I can think of no better example of Passion Never Rests!

Learn more about this remarkable man in this Columns article.

Honoring our longstanding partnership with Boeing

On Monday we had the privilege, along with our supporters and collaborators from The Boeing Company, to celebrate UW student recipients of Boeing scholarships, and to express our immense gratitude for The Boeing Company and its generous, longstanding support of our students, faculty and programs.

Interim President Ana Mari Cauce pictured with Boeing scholarship recipients
Interim President Ana Mari Cauce (second from left) with UW student recipients of Boeing scholarships

For nearly 100 years, our collaboration with Boeing has had a significant impact in shaping the University, Boeing and the Pacific Northwest. Boeing’s support has given our students the opportunity to challenge themselves, to apply their education to real-world problems and to pursue their dreams. Thanks to Boeing, these students have been able to develop their talents and engage in significant and positive ways with the wider community. Our Boeing-funded students are leaving the UW well-equipped to create a better world for all of us.

This past year our collaboration with Boeing achieved a new milestone. The Boeing Advanced Research Center — or BARC — officially launched in January, with an initial focus in areas of advanced assembly and manufacturing technologies. Housed in our Department of Mechanical Engineering, BARC is exciting because it represents a new way of collaborating to tackle the challenges facing industry and society. At BARC, UW faculty and Boeing engineers lead research projects together, and graduate students have the opportunity to work side-by-side with Boeing to address some of the most significant issues in airplane design, manufacturing and assembly.

The depth and breadth of Boeing’s impact on the UW is vast. The company’s investments in research, academic programs, scholarships and fellowships benefit many students on all three campuses. We are truly grateful for our collaboration with Boeing, for its leadership on our campus, in our community and in our state, and for its longstanding partnership, working together with us to educate, serve and provide opportunities for all of Washington’s citizens.

Tremendous pride in our student-athletes

University of Washington Undergraduate Medalist Reception
Megan Kufeld

Student-athletes are a tremendous source of pride for our institution. I think being a student and an athlete is truly incredible—I am impressed by their abilities to manage the intensive practice and game schedules in addition to their academic responsibilities and deadlines.

The UW student-athletes have a strong record of success in graduation—especially in men’s tennis and women’s golf and volleyball—rivaled by only a few other Pac-12 schools. As I head to a meeting with my counterparts in the Pac-12 Conference today, I will carry with me that pride as well as stories of our remarkable athletes like UW Women’s Soccer goalkeeper Megan Kufeld, to whom just last week I had the great pleasure of presenting a Presidential Medal for her outstanding academic achievements. Go Huskies!

 

The UW has some of the best staff in the world

At the UW, not all of the creative solutions to contemporary challenges come from our faculty. We also have some of the best staff in the world.

Recently, a good example of what our staff does came to my attention. Many schools have had agonizing struggles to decide which intramural locker rooms, male or female, are to be used by transgender students.Here, though, John Pariseau, our Director of Recreational Sports Programs, saw the question coming and worked out a thoughtful, innovative answer.  (Seattle Weekly blog)

First, John started by defining this not as a “problem” but as an opportunity to help make part of our community feel more comfortable.  Then, rather than forcing such students to make a difficult either/or decision, he pursued his idea for a “universal shower-dressing room” to be used by transgender students and others, giving them the privacy of traditional male and female facilities without unnecessary complications. John coordinated the planning for this locker room with the UW’s Q Center and now it is almost ready to open.

I love seeing this kind of flexible thinking and the application of both imagination and common sense. Thank you, John, for helping make the UW a better institution for our entire community.

Mike Young