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Category: UW News

News Roundup: Innovation rankings, post-college earnings, and access

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UW ranks fourth in the world in new measure of innovation (Seattle Times)

“The University of Washington is the most innovative public university in the world — and among all universities, public and private, it ranks fourth — according to a new rating by  Reuters, the online news service. Only Stanford, MIT and Harvard do more to foster innovation, Reuters says.”

College costs vs. earnings: New federal scorecard rates the schools (Seattle Times)

“Among Washington’s public research universities, the University of Washington and its branch campuses perform well; the average annual cost to attend for federal financial aid recipients was under $12,000 a year, and 10 years after they entered college, the median income of students who received financial aid was more than $50,000 a year. … UW is included in a special list of 30 schools with high graduation rates and low costs for the lowest-income students.”

Top Colleges Doing the Most for Low-Income Students (New York Times)

UW is ranked #13 in the NYT’s new College Access Index, which measures top colleges’ efforts on economic diversity.

Get Social: Retweet the news on Twitter!

WSB on South Seattle College’s ’13th year’ promise scholarship

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Via the West Seattle Blog comes a promising update about the latest cohort of students receiving South Seattle College’s 13th year promise scholarship:

This is the fifth fall that Chief Sealth International High School graduates are among the new South Seattle College (WSB sponsor) students taking advantage of the 13th Year Promise – a free year of tuition. It was first offered to Cleveland High School graduating seniors in 2008, adding Sealth in 2011, and Rainier Beach in 2013.

We stopped by SSC on Thursday as this year’s group finished the summer jump-start known as “Bridge.” Among those they heard from, SSC president Gary Oertli, who had a personal story to tell:

…

Oertli is a Sealth alum who was one of the first in his family to go to college – the University of Washington, he said, though the accomplishments of which he’s proudest are those of his daughters, both college graduates. He told the students that people who finish college are more likely to have kids who go to college. For students interested in starting at SSC and transferring, he added, they do better at UW than many of those who are there from the start.

Thanks for the shout out to UW, and congrats to SCC and the area grads taking advantage of this promising program!

Learn more about SSC’s 13th year promise scholarship here.

Governor Inslee signs bipartisan transportation investment package at UW

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Yesterday (July 15), joined by a bipartisan group of state legislators and transportation leaders, Governor Jay Inslee signed the statewide transportation package at the UW’s Conibear Shellhouse.

Interim Pres. Cauce welcomes legislative leaders, and introduces Gov. Inslee
Pres. Cauce welcomes legislative leaders, and introduces Gov. Inslee

UW Interim President Ana Mari Cauce introduced Gov. Inslee, and in her remarks noted the investment package will benefit thousands of UW students, faculty, employees, patients, visitors, and fans who depend on safe and reliable transportation. In fact, within a mile-or-so radius of the bill signing location, State Route 520, light rail, and the Burke Gilman Trail all form one of the most significant regional and multimodal transportation hubs in the state.

Gov. Inslee signs statewide transportation package bills.
Gov. Inslee signs statewide transportation package bills.

President Cauce also thanked the bipartisan group of state legislators, business and labor leadership, and transportation leaders who assembled for coming to the UW campus for the bill signing. She noted the location, Conibear Shellhouse, was an apt place for signing a bill that required so much determination and teamwork — as it is also the central hub for Husky student-athletes, and the home of the UW Crew Team.

View more photos on State Relations’ Facebook page.

A whirlwind week of advocacy for UW and higher education

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This week a number of groups traveled to Olympia to advocate for UW legislative priorities and public higher education.

On Tuesday, leaders from the UW Computer Science & Engineering Department made the rounds to talk with legislators about the importance of a new Computer Science & Engineering building. This expansion would allow CSE to double the number of degrees it produces annually. Read a letter that tech leaders recently sent legislators expressing strong support for the project.

Also on Tuesday, the Husky Crew Team (four-time national champs!) visited with Governor Jay Inslee, and visited the House and Senate floor for photos with UW alumni serving in the Legislature. The team’s visit came the same day as the state’s film industry hosted an advocacy day, where among many topics of discussion, was the possibility of the popular book Boys in the Boat being made into a motion picture.

UW Husky Crew Team

On Wednesday, Regents & Trustees from the four-year public baccalaureate institutions and two-year community and technical colleges held their annual advocacy day in Olympia. The advocacy push comes at a key time, as legislative budget writers are in the midst of drafting spending proposals for the 2015-2017 biennium.

Regents and Trustees with Rep. Zeiger
Regents and Trustees with Rep. Zeiger

 

Also on Wednesday, leaders from the UW College of the Environment talked with legislators about opportunities for investing in critical research at the University, such as ocean acidification, climate impacts, and marine research in local waters. On the same day, UW leaders participated in the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s annual executive day at the Capitol to talk about higher education’s important links to the state economy.

On Thursday, leaders from the UW College of Arts & Sciences met with capital budget leads to advocate for a new Life Sciences building. The project would allow one of UW’s most popular majors (Biology) to expand to meet student demand, and feed the growing Life Sciences sector in the state economy.

UW Arts & Sciences leaders with Harry the Husky
UW Arts & Sciences leaders pose with Harry the Husky

 

Also on Thursday, ASUW and GPSS hosted groups of pre-med and medical students for meetings with legislative leadership and alumni serving in the legislature, to advocate for the importance of preserving and expanding UW’s WWAMI medical education program. They had a special guest along for the day as well, who proved quite popular! View an album of the visits on our Facebook page.

UW Students with Speaker Chopp, Reps. Orwall & Pollet
UW Students with Speaker Chopp, Reps. Orwall & Pollet

 

Remember, to get updates during the legislative session, be sure to bookmark the blog, follow us on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook.

Approaching session’s mid-way point, legislative action moves from committee to the floor

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Today is Day 50 of the 105-day 2015 Regular Session.

Legislative cutoff dates signal the ebb and flow of legislative activity, as committee, staff and legislative members’ workloads change in response to the winnowing list of bills still “alive.”

Legislative work moves from committee to floor sessions this week, as both policy and fiscal cutoffs on the legislative calendar are now in the rear view mirror. That means if either a policy bill, or a bill with a fiscal impact, hasn’t been voted out of committee, it’s not likely going further in the process this year. That being said, some bills declared “dead” may still be revived if they are deemed necessary to implement the budget (“NTIB”).

The next cutoff will be the floor cutoff on Wednesday, March 11 at 5:00pm, the time by which a bill has to make it out of its house of origin, to be considered by the other chamber.

To watch floor debate in the House and Senate, tune-in to TVW.

Director of UW’s Clean Energy Institute presents to House committee

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Today (Jan. 29), Dan Schwartz, Director of UW’s Clean Energy Institute, appeared before the House Committee on Technology & Economic Development to give an overview of CEI’s pioneering work in the fields of solar generation, energy storage, and systems integration.

The CEI was founded in 2013 with a $6 million investment from the Washington legislature, which has the institute has leveraged to attract additional federal and foundation support.

The institute is accelerating the translation of science into technologies that support the development of solar energy and its integration into the electrical grid.

View Dr. Schwartz’s presentation to the committee here, and CEI’s recently released annual report here.

We will post a link to Dr. Schwartz’s comments via TVW as soon as the video is available.