Administrative Snapshot: April 2005
Names of key participants appear in brackets at the end of most items.

Jefferson Street sidewalk

Late last year the City of Tacoma directed UWT to repair a broken sidewalk along Jefferson Street adjacent to the Old Spaghetti Factory parking lot owned by the university. Work has begun to replace the paving along the entire length of the parking lot. Planting strips at the curb will be planted with street trees and ground cover and a planting strip at the back of the sidewalk will be planted with hedges to screen the lot. The paving should be completed next week. Planting will occur this month. [Fred King]

North entry landscape improvements

Work has been started to improve landscaping and paving at the north end of campus. The Commerce Street turnaround will be revised and additional landscape areas provided. The roadway and parking between the railroad tracks, Grassi's Flowers and the Joy Building will also have paving and landscape improvements. Construction in this area will start late this week and be completed by the end of the month. Tree and groundcover planting will occur in May. [Fred King]

Accreditation

A small work group, led by Christine Ingebritsen, Associate Dean and Associate Vice Provost, Office of Undergraduate Education at UWS, is drafting an interim report to the regional accrediting authority, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities. Among the recommendations of the accreditation team, which visited UW in spring 2003, was that the UW continue work on setting learning goals for students and describing progress toward those goals to facilitate continuous improvement. Sharon Fought is obtaining examples of learning goals, which most programs have posted on the Web, and related changes from UWT programs to share with the workgroup. [Sharon Fought]

Faculty searches

Two new faculty members were recently hired:

Dr. Emily Ignacio has been hired in IAS as assistant professor of Sociology. Dr. Ignacio received her Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Annette Henry has been hired as a professor of Education. She comes to UWT from the University of Illinois, Chicago. [Jack Nelson]

>> UPDATED FROM LAST ISSUE

Institute director search

Two of the three finalists for the Institute of Technology director's position have visited UWT. They are Dr. Rafic Bachnak of Texas A&M Corpus Christi and Dr. Demetrios Kazakos of the University of Idaho. A third, Dr. Orlando Baiocchi of the SUNY Institute of Technology, will give a public presentation at 9 a.m. Friday, April 15 in BHS 104. (Founding Institute director Larry Crum will step down from the director's position at the end of the academic year.) The search committee is chaired by Bill Richardson and includes faculty members Sam Chung and George Mobus (Institute of Technology), Charles Jackels (UW Bothell), Craig Chambers (UW Seattle) and Cheryl Greengrove (IAS), Institute staff member Courtney Randazzo and Institute advisory board member Glen McNeil, of Sagem Morpho.

Housing/Parking

Construction will start next week on the Court 17 garage. When complete, the project will provide a 306-stall parking garage to be owned and operated by UWT with a 129-unit, privately managed apartment building on top. The garage will be complete and partially operational late this year. The residential units will be complete fall of 2006. Court C will be closed during construction. A groundbreaking ceremony is planned for April 27. [Fred King]

• View a PDF of the 2003 campus master plan (CAUTION: Very large file)

Commerce Street

A request was submitted to the City of Tacoma for legal vacation of the south end of Commerce (between 19th and 21st) and the north end of Commerce (outside Dougan). By vacating the street, the city would turn control over to the University. All of the abutting property owners are in support of the street vacation. Final approval by the Tacoma City Council is anticipated this month. Revisions to the parking on the two sections of street are planned for May. [Fred King]

15th-year: Founders Day ceremony, reception, dinner May 25, fall event Oct. 8

UW Tacoma is marking its 15th year serving the South Sound, and an array of events are being planned to celebrate this milestone.

• On May 25 the Founders Day ceremony will celebrate the Distinguished Teaching Award, the Distinguished Service Awards, the Distinguished Research Award, the Hagenbuch Award, the Distinguished Alumni Award and the Community Founders Award. A reception will immediately follow the ceremony, with a subsequent dinner for the winners of the pinnacle awards.
  
• On Oct. 8, President Emmert and new Chancellor Patricia Spakes will share their vision for the future of the campus at a festive dinner that will celebrate the 15th anniversary and honor members of the Chancellor's Club (donors who have given $1,000 during the fiscal year or $25,000 over a lifetime). Faculty, staff and alumni will be invited to the event. Ticket costs have not yet been determined. [Carol Van Natta]

Research Days in Olympia

A UW Tacoma project was featured at Research Days in Olympia March 24 and 25. “Alien Invaders,” the UWT Environmental Science project on invasive species, was among 30 college and university research projects from across the state showcased at the event. University research as an area of interest is gaining more attention from legislators, and UWT's participation helped the University of Washington show its leadership position and exhibit its strengths in this area. [Mike Wark]

UWT data reports on SIS

The electronic fact book on the Student Information System (SIS), available for internal use, has recently been made available to directors, in addition to the program administrators and advisors. Retention data pivot tables are particularly useful and support the current work of Dr. Katie Baird and the campus retention committee. Winter Quarter data are available and Spring data should be available before the end of April. FERPA training is required to use the database, and use is currently restricted to UWT administration, staff and faculty advisers. All information is confidential. More information is available on the DataPlus Web Site. If you have questions about the SIS application, contact the Director of Information Technology at ppow@u.washington.edu. [Sharon Fought]

Tuition and Fee Policy Committee

The Tuition and Fee Policy Advisory Committee is scheduled to meet April 12. An update will be provided in the next issue. [Sharon Fought]

Support for grants and contracts

A session on “demystifying the human subjects review process” is scheduled for April 18, 2005. More details are available at the Research Web site. [Sharon Fought]

• Visit the Grants and Contracts Web site
  

Nursing to offer BSN courses in Olympia

Beginning this summer, the Nursing program will offer offsite BSN courses at Providence St. Peter in Olympia. Students will complete the degree over three years, taking their clinical and elective courses on campus at UWT. [Marjorie Dobratz]

Tri-campus Task Force

Comprehensive results from the Tri-Campus Task Force retreat, held at the end of October, are now available on the Web.

• Learn more about the Tri-Campus Task Force

Dawg Shed

Since the beginning of Phase 2B construction, use of the Dawg Shed for assembly purposes has not been permitted. Recently UW's Environmental Health & Safety has concluded that the Shed is useable for assembly. Accordingly, the Dawg Shed can be used for large group activities with approval through the UUF Committee and Facility Services. There will be a cost for cleaning the Shed by Facility Services before each use. Activities involving food or drink are still prohibited because of the presence of birds in the space. [Fred King]

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