| Spakes:
speech outlines vision for the future
In
her annual
campus address last month, Chancellor Patricia Spakes
encouraged faculty and staff to help steer UWT toward the
future.
“We
have identified some of the most critical issues and some
of the strategies we need to implement,” Spakes said.
“Now ... we need the best thinking of everyone here
on how to expand on and approach each of these critical pieces.”
Spakes
called on the campus community to:
-
Help develop a comprehensive strategic plan and vision that
builds on the campus master plan, the 2707 growth proposal
and the work of the Charting the Future Committee to develop
a freshman and sophomore curriculum. In addition, UWT needs
to examine President Emmert’s vision for UW and decide
how to integrate that into the campus vision.
- Help
determine how accreditation fits into campus goals. The
campus must consider the benefits and drawbacks of pursuing
separate professional and/or regional accreditation and
determine a direction for the future.
- Determine
how teaching, scholarship and service are valued at UWT.
-
Examine shared governance and determine how it will affect
the roles of administrators, faculty and staff and change
the culture of campus.
In
addition, Spakes discussed the future of UWT and asked the
campus community to think about what UWT is likely to be in
2012. She identified nine areas that require focused attention:
- Reputation
-
Community engagement
-
Enrollment management
- Academic
program development
-
Student development
-
Organizational development
-
Advancement
-
Professional development
-
Revenue enhancement
Making
an effort to openly address these issues now will result in
a stronger foundation for the future, Spakes said.
“Our
future lies in the ability to come together as a community
to clarify our vision and work through the challenging issues
we face in full knowledge that we cannot achieve our goals
if we cannot reach some agreement on our plans,” she
said.
Comments,
suggestions and ideas about the future of UWT as outlined
in the address may be e-mailed
to Chancellor Spakes. Administrative
Snapshot will continue to provide updates on initiatives
mentioned in the speech.
Snow
day
 |
|
Overnight
snowfall prompted a two-hour delay of UWT operations
Friday morning – but that didn’t stop someone
from building two snow people on the grass outside the
library. By mid-afternoon, most of the snow on campus
had melted, but the snow people — with pansy eyes
and a coffee-cup-sleeve mouth — still stood. |
Student
film takes top honors in Grand Cinema contest
The
challenge seemed impossible – but the prize was too
big to ignore.
A
group of UWT students won the Grand Cinema’s short-film
contest last month, producing a five-minute film in just 72
hours with only a few actors, minimal sets and equipment,
and a clunky required line of dialogue.
The
film, “Technical Difficulties,” brought laughs
from the judges and won the team $150 and priceless exposure
for their trouble: It will be shown before regularly scheduled
features at The Grand.
Student
director Corky Coleman, an IAS junior, found out about the
contest online and entered in late November. The Grand required
every filmmaker to use a different prop (Coleman’s was
a box of Milk Duds), include the line “I have a feeling
someone’s deceiving us” and incorporate an image
of a Tacoma bridge.
“I
thought, wouldn’t it be funny if we did a movie about
amateur filmmakers messing up their shots?” Coleman
said. “The guy behind the camera doesn’t know
how to use it, and he’s recording when he thinks the
camera is off and turning it off when he thinks it’s
recording.”
The
scenes in the film show the actors and director setting up
for the shots. The screen goes black when the director says
“action,” eliminating key action scenes. Coleman
and his team shot the film around UWT, featuring the train
tracks, student center and Bridge of Glass. Because of adult
language, the film will only be shown before R-rated movies.
Now
that the film has won first prize at The Grand, Coleman hopes
to polish the work and submit it to more film festivals.
“I
didn’t expect to win,” he said. “I figured
somebody with more experience would win it.”
Social
Welfare students influence state policy … again
For
the second year in a row, a group of UWT Social Welfare students
have earned a national award for their efforts to make a difference
in the state legislature.
Five
students and Associate Professor Janice Laakso were honored
this summer with an Influencing State Policy Award for their
work advocating for passage of a health care bill affecting
children and impoverished families. The national Influencing
State Policy group sponsors the contest for U.S. social work
students and faculty, challenging them to try to make a difference
in state government.
The
five students lobbied for the passage of House Bill 1441,
which eliminated monthly premiums for impoverished families
and expanded health care access for children. They helped
65 other UWT students write letters to their representatives
and created a mass-mailing campaign advocating for the bill,
which was signed by the governor in July.
The
students and Laakso will be honored at the Council on Social
Work Education's Annual Program Meeting in Chicago in February.
Last
year, another group of students from Laakso’s class
won the same award for their work on the Family Stabilization
and Emergency Hunger Act.
Sierra
Club honors a 'bustling' UWT
Last
week's report from the Sierra Club — which called UW
Tacoma one of the country’s best new development projects
— cited good planning and design, partnerships with
government, retailers and eateries, easy access to transportation
and preservation of historic architecture as the things that
make UWT great.
“The
design [of UWT] has contributed toward a thriving area of
activity in the streets around the campus,” the Sierra
Club said in its report, called Building Better. “There
is a seamless transition between campus and the city.”
The
report named UWT as one of a dozen American developments that
are enhancing neighborhoods and the environment by reusing
existing space and creating accessible places to live and
work. UW Tacoma has accomplished this by adapting old warehouses,
adding retail and bringing thousands of students, faculty
and staff to the neighborhood each week.
The
report says the UWT campus has become “a bustling addition
to Tacoma,” adding to the growing demand for retail,
hotels, housing and further redevelopment.
“Establishing
a new campus in downtown Tacoma was an example of local leaders
— primarily businesspeople — getting fed up with
an eyesore at the city's gateway, and taking initiative to
create a vision, put their own resources into that idea, and
then work relentlessly to sell the idea to state and local
officials and university administrators.
Emergency
management report now online
A
report examining UWT’s emergency management procedures
is now available online.
The
report was generated by a three-person task force after the
campus was locked down last month following an armed robbery
at a nearby bank. UWT officials are working to address recommendations
in the report, and Chancellor Patricia Spakes is appointing
an Emergency Management Team to oversee these recommendations
and develop policy.
Quick
Links
Other news and projects of interest to the UW Tacoma community
Faculty
and Staff Notes
Kelly
Kledzik has joined the Milgard School of Business
as an office assistant.
Administrative
Snapshot: A look at issues and projects at UWT
If
you are working on a project of interest to the UWT community,
tell us about it at uwtnews@u.washington.edu.
Choose
a topic:
|
