May 2003 • The monthly newsletter for UWT faculty and staff
| Budget
"town meeting" today
A town meeting to discuss the state budget is being held
at 12:30 p.m. today in BHS 106. The Budget Development Committee
is at work shaping recommendations that will help UWT preserve
the high quality of our academic programs while absorbing
significant cuts to our state resources.
|
Introducing
e-news
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the UW Tacoma faculty and staff
newsletter. Public Relations and Communications will publish this
e-mail newsletter monthly to provide updates, news and information
of interest to the campus community. If you have comments or suggestions
regarding this newsletter, e-mail us at uwtnews@u.washington.edu.
Name this newsletter!
Think you can come up with a better name for our newsletter than
"UWT News"? Well, you're probably right.
The
Office of Public Relations and Communications is organizing a
contest to name this newsletter. We're looking for something that
really captures the character of our new baby. The Public Relations
and Communications staff will judge the entries and award a basket
of UWT goodies to the winner. Send your entries
to uwtnews@u.washington.edu
by May 16. The winner, and the new name, will be revealed in the
next newsletter.
Ruth
Rea is 2003 Distinguished Teaching Award recipient
Ruth
Rea, UW Tacoma's 2003 Distinguished Teaching Award recipient,
is known throughout the Nursing program for her innovative, joyful
approach to teaching.
In
her classroom, it's no surprise to find students counting M&Ms
and examining chocolate chip cookies during a statistics lesson.
They might read poems in the Dead Numbers Society, work in "Survivor"
groups or attend SPSS "boot camp." Rea says it's a teaching
style that grabs students' attention.
"Students
do push themselves to learn," she said. "But sometimes,
you have to use a bit of entertainment to get their attention
and maintain it."
Students
who nominated Rea for the award agree that her courses are entertaining
and thorough.
"When
I met Dr. Rea, I met someone who not only interacted with me,
but fed my appetite for knowledge while keeping me hungry for
more," one student raved in a letter of nomination. "Dr.
Rea can take any subject and make it fun, interesting and exciting."
Rea
said she was "amazingly humbled and pleased" to receive
the award.
"I
work really hard on my teaching," she said.
Rea,
a UWT faculty member since 1998, holds a Ph.D. in Nursing Administration
from the University of Texas. She is a retired U.S. Army colonel
with 27 years' experience in the Army Nurse Corps.
Regents
consider parking, housing project
A
proposal to build a $21 million housing and parking complex on
campus is is being considered by the University of Washington
Board of Regents.
The
project, a partnership of public and private interests, would
add 94 apartments and a 300-space parking garage to the corner
of South 17th and Market streets, continuing the University's
tradition of revitalizing a long-neglected part of downtown Tacoma.
The
project makes it possible for the campus to build a garage, rather
than paving surface lots, which uses space more efficiently. It
also looks better. The University has negotiated with Lorig Associates
of Seattle, following an RFP process, to build the mix of one-
and two-bedroom and studio apartments above the garage. The units
would be rented at market rate. Lorig would pay for and operate
the apartments, and the University would fund the parking garage
from money provided for Phase 2 of campus construction, a low-interest
loan from the City of Tacoma and bank financing. These loans would
be repaid from parking revenue.
Housing
is a new addition to the campus's long-term master plan, which
is in the process of being updated. After nearly three years of
work, the plan is scheduled to go to the Regents for review and
must be adopted before the housing and parking project can be
approved.
If
the Board of Regents approves the housing and parking proposal,
the project would be ready to go, as long as the Legislature approves
of the change of use from surface to garage parking. Students
have expressed an interest in on-campus housing.
"Housing
will add more of a university ambiance to campus," says Sandy
Boyle, vice chancellor for Finance and Administration. "As
we develop more unique programs, we'll
see more students wanting to move to campus."
Students,
faculty and staff will have first priority in renting these apartments,
but planners expect, initially, many tenants will be from the
community.
"Over
time, that will change. Building now helps ensure that when demand
is high for student housing, we will have reasonably priced options
available," says Boyle.
Recommendation
expected soon on Japanese Language School
The
fate of the Japanese Language School building, which once housed
a vibrant institution within the Japanese community, is still
in question. Last fall, the Finance and Administration office
hired a consulting firm to determine whether the building was
structurally sound, whether it could be refurbished with historic
integrity, and how much various approaches to preservation would
cost. Based on this information, the consultant will make a recommendation
on the best course of action.
The
report is expected soon. Preliminary indications from the consultant
suggest that while support structures are strong enough to keep
the building from falling down, the building is so dilapidated
that much of it must be rebuilt, which means historic integrity
would be lost.
If
there is hope of refurbishing the building, it would likely require
a private developer to take a long-term lease and convert the
building to some use such as office space.
If
a financial source to preserve the building is not found, it will
need to be torn down because the city has cited it as a hazard.
The Tacoma Landmarks Preservation Committee has approved demolishing
the building, if necessary. The building and its place in history
would eventually be commemorated with a Japanese garden.
The
Language School has been unoccupied since the 1940s, when it was
used to gather members of the Japanese community before sending
them to internment campus during World War II.
Several
members of the local Japanese community were consulted. There
was a consensus among them that if the building must come down,
it should be commemorated with a garden. Several faculty and staff
have voiced opposition to tearing down the building, which helped
generate the most recent study.
The
school is on Tacoma Avenue between 19th and 17th streets.
Former
governors push capital construction funding for higher education
Former
governors Dan Evans and Booth Gardner met with UW Tacoma and community
college supporters in the Tacoma Room April 17 to discuss their
ambitious plans to increase funding for higher education.
The
two hope to convince lawmakers to increase the amount spent on
college and university construction by $1.7 billion by modifying
how the state determines the debt limit for bonds that fund capital
projects. It is possible up to $1 billion will be added for higher
education capital funding over the next two years, although negotiations
are still underway on the state budget.
The
duo teamed up two years ago following a luncheon featuring a speech
by William H. Gates Sr. Both moved by Gates' message about the
critical need to support higher education for the health of the
state's economy, they made a commitment to join forces to make
change.
Evans
and Gardner are also looking for a way to increase support for
higher education operating budgets. But with the largest high
school graduating class coming in 2008, the two felt focusing
on building classrooms to prepare for an onslaught of students
was a good place to start. However much is funded in the final
biennial budget, the fact that everyone in Olympia is talking
about the proposal is tremendous progress, Evans and Gardner said.
New
Web site profiles shops, restaurants, museums and more
Check
out shopUWT.com, the new Web site designed to help faculty, staff,
students and visitors to UW Tacoma find just what they need in
our neighborhood.
There's
something for everyone in our vibrant district, from world-class
museums to local breweries, gift stores and fast food. At shopUWT.com,
we've gathered descriptions and details for the dozens of unique
restaurants, shops and attractions on and around campus. Check
the site for hours, locations, e-mail addresses, menus and links.
Listings will be updated frequently.
The
Office of Public Relations and Communications manages the Web
site. For more information or to suggest a new business link,
contact Jill Carnell at (253) 692-4536 or jcarnell@u.washington.edu.
> VISIT: www.shopuwt.com
Last
train rolls through campus
After
133 years of continuous use, a section of historic rail line has
closed. One of the most familiar sounds of UW Tacoma – the
long, slow whistle of a freight train crossing campus –
is gone forever.
The
last train rolled through UWT on March 31 as staff, students and
faculty waved and took photos. The track, a spur of Burlington
Northern Railroad, was closed to make way for light rail in downtown
Tacoma.
The
two-mile spur was part of the Prairie Line, the original transcontinental
railroad that brought the first locomotives to Tacoma 133 years
ago. The city's economy was boosted by the railroad's arrival,
and a neighborhood of warehouses sprung up along the tracks in
the area that is now UW Tacoma.
Sound
Transit's light rail system will further spread the flame of economic
revitalization in Tacoma. The Sound Transit tracks cross the Prairie
Line tracks at the intersection of Pacific Avenue and 17th Street
– and to make the commuter rail safe, the Prairie Line must
close.
More
than 100 people, many with long connections to Tacoma rails, attended
a lecture event in the Keystone Auditorium April 1.
Phase
2B construction on schedule
Construction
is progressing quickly on the Phase 2B project, and completion
is scheduled for October 2003.
Interior
work on the Cherry Parkes and Mattress Factory buildings includes
upgrading the existing wood structure with structural steel and
integrated wood beams. Outside, workers are cleaning and repointing
brick to give the buildings a refreshed look while preserving
their historic character.
Limited
one-way vehicle access will be restored to Commerce and C streets
sometime in May, according to contractor Lease Crutcher Lewis.
Project leaders say traffic may be re-routed frequently this spring
to accommodate deliveries of construction materials and concrete.
> DOWNLOAD
COMPLETE PHASE 2B UPDATE (PDF;308K)
Faculty
and Staff Notes
Business
Administration Professor Stern Neill and Academic
Technologies Manager Rebecca Etheridge recently
received a $5,000 UWT Founder's Endowment Grant to explore the
use of handheld wireless technology in the classroom.
OESSA
Executive Director Dan Garcia presented "Marketing
on a Shoestring Budget" at the annual meeting of the American
Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (AACRAO)
in Washington, D.C. in April. Also at the AACRAO meeting, Garcia
served his second elected term as chair of the Latino/Latina Caucus
and was appointed chair of the Student Access and Equity Committee
on minority issues.
Biology
Professor John Banks recently published "Population-Level
Effects of Pesticides and Other Toxicants on Arthropods"
in Annual Review of Entomology and "Influence of
plant diversity on herbivores and their natural enemies"
in Predators and Parasitoids (Advances in Biopesticide
Research Series). He also has had several works accepted for future
publication: "Scale as modifier in vegetation diversity experiments:
effects on herbivores and predators" in the journal Oikos;
"Spatial scale of experimental plots affects natural enemy
movement behavior in the absence of prey" in the journal
Entomologia Experimentalis et Applicata.
Linda
Schmitz joined UWT in April as the part-time Building
and Facilities Coordinator. She can be contacted in GWP 312, at
2-4426 or schmitzl@u.washington.edu.
Program Adviser and Administrator Terri Simonsen
(Social Work) and her husband, Barry, welcomed new son Jacob into
the world on Saturday, April 26. Jacob was 7 pounds and 19.5 inches
at birth.
