Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, was selected for the 2014 Distinguished Graduate Award by the University of Washington College of Education. Enjoy this video of his keynote address!
Tag: Ed Taylor
Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor receives College of Education Distinguished Graduate Award
Ed Taylor, vice provost and dean of Undergraduate Academic Affairs, has been selected for the 2014 Distinguished Graduate Award by the University of Washington College of Education. The faculty of the College of Education votes upon and bestows this award.
Message from Vice Provost and Dean Ed Taylor
What have we learned in the last year that will help our communities in the coming year? I am thinking about our students, past and present and how their UW experiences lay a foundation for their future, indeed, but also for the futures of so many others.
Welcome from the Dean Autumn 2013
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Fall quarter is always an invigorating time for me. We begin by welcoming our newest students to the academic life of the University of Washington at Freshman Convocation, an event that represents the moment when students fully transition into the UW.
These students join those who are settled and have found their groove here. And many of those returning students actively welcome their new fellow Huskies by being orientation leaders, Freshman Interest Group (FIG) leaders, peer mentors, tutors, and more.
Through programs in Undergraduate Academic Affairs, students—new and returning—find opportunities to connect with the academic communities here; explore the worlds of service and research; achieve excellence as they define it; and benefit from faculty innovations in the classroom.
The undergraduate experience is an indicator of the quality of the UW as a whole. Recently, the UW has received some distinctive rankings including:
- 16th in the world in a study by the Center for World-Class Universities of Shanghai Jiao Tong University, China. The study ranked universities on quality of education, quality of faculty, research output and per capita performance.
- Washington Monthly ranked the UW 13th nationally and 9th in “Best Bang for the Buck.” Washington monthly ranks universities based upon social mobility, research production and commitment to service.
- 16th among public universities for our undergraduate program in America’s Best Colleges by U.S. News & World Report.
What this means for undergraduates is that they can avail themselves of educational opportunities as unique as they are. Students from rural Washington can find research opportunities in rural China. Undergraduates from across the nation and world can learn together and alongside distinguished faculty in a freshman seminar. Returning students and new students alike embrace service and leadership and grow into the leaders our world needs.
Though the trees and squirrels on campus are getting ready for the winter, I’m getting ready for what I think of as the season of renewal and am excited for the year to come and the promise our students hold.
Sincerely,
Ed Taylor
Vice Provost and Dean
MLK and sacred songs that feed the soul
I crave the sound of a call and response—the verbal and non-verbal interaction between a speaker and listener—that is endemic to democratic participation in public matters; the kind of call that allows us to acknowledge misfortune, ruination, or loss, followed by a response proclaiming that freedom and justice are close at hand. It’s a reminder that we have reason to be hopeful.
Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered a eulogy for Addie Mae Collins, Carol Denise McNair, Cynthia Diane Wesley, and Carole Robertson, the four children killed in the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing on Sunday, September 15, 1963. King’s message is time honored, foretelling, and tragically predictive that we would not see the last of violence, suffering, and sorrow.
In the tradition of so many spirituals, King called the faithful to bear witness to ineffable sadness and in doing so, reminds us of our ultimate calling:
These children—unoffending, innocent, and beautiful—were the victims of one of the most vicious and tragic crimes ever perpetrated against humanity. And yet they died nobly. They are the martyred heroines of a holy crusade for freedom and human dignity. And so this afternoon in a real sense they have something to say to each of us in their death….They have something to say to every politician who has fed his constituents with the stale bread of hatred and the spoiled meat of racism. They say to each of us, black and white alike, that we must substitute courage for caution. They say to us that we must be concerned not merely about who murdered them, but about the system, the way of life, the philosophy which produced the murderers. Their death says to us that we must work passionately and unrelentingly for the realization of the American dream.
In the tradition of the spirituals that allow us to move from suffering to hope, King calls on our redemptive spirit:
And so my friends, they did not die in vain….The death of these little children may lead our whole Southland from the low road of man’s inhumanity to man to the high road of peace and brotherhood. These tragic deaths may lead our nation to substitute an aristocracy of character for an aristocracy of color. The spilled blood of these innocent girls may cause the whole citizenry of Birmingham to transform the negative extremes of a dark past into the positive extremes of a bright future. Indeed this tragic event may cause the white South to come to terms with its conscience.
The leader’s voice calls for a response that summons justice and human worth. And while we often want to hear King invoke the view from the mountaintop, he reminds us of the reality that the journey up there means that we have to walk through the darkness and through the shadows so that we come to see certain truths:
And so I stand here to say this afternoon to all assembled here, that in spite of the darkness of this hour, we must not despair. We must not become bitter, nor must we harbor the desire to retaliate with violence. No, we must not lose faith in our white brothers. Somehow we must believe that the most misguided among them can learn to respect the dignity and the worth of all human personality.
Negro spirituals are a stunning and beautiful expression of humanity. They can be anthems that transcend a given moment and feed the aspirations and desires of the human soul. King began his sermon by calling attention to the tragedy. He ends by invoking the promise of a new day. And as with so many spirituals, so many of King’s sermons—we, the congregation, have the opportunity to respond. In the words of King:
Now I say to you in conclusion, life is hard, at times as hard as crucible steel. It has its bleak and difficult moments. Like the ever-flowing waters of the river, life has its moments of drought and its moments of flood. Like the ever-changing cycle of the seasons, life has the soothing warmth of its summers and the piercing chill of its winters.
You gave to this world wonderful children. They didn’t live long lives, but they lived meaningful lives. Their lives were distressingly small in quantity, but glowingly large in quality. And no greater tribute can be paid to you as parents, and no greater epitaph can come to them as children, than where they died and what they were doing when they died. They did not die in the dives and dens of Birmingham, they died between the sacred walls of the church of God, and they were discussing the eternal meaning of love. This stands out as a beautiful, beautiful thing for all generations. Shakespeare had Horatio to say some beautiful words as he stood over the dead body of Hamlet. And today, as I stand over the remains of these beautiful, darling girls, I paraphrase the words of Shakespeare: Good night, sweet princesses. Good night, those who symbolize a new day. And may the flight of angels take thee to thy eternal rest. God bless you.