a place with heart

The UW Tacoma campus community has been doing some challenging work lately. Our strategic planning process has involved what you might suspect: months of detailed research and plenty of healthy debate. It has required us to take a long, hard look at how we have developed over the past 17 years and at the challenges we face now and into the future. As a result, we have discovered much about who we are—and who we aspire to be. One thing is for sure: The decisions that guide us into the future must align with our deepest held values and our strengths from the start.

In its newly drafted statement of values, the UW Tacoma community has agreed in principle on some important notions of what we’re all about:

Our fundamental purpose at UW Tacoma is to educate students for life as global citizens. We see UW Tacoma as a distinctive expression of the University of Washington that provides access to an exceptional education for citizens who choose to live and learn in the South Puget Sound region.

We recognize that an excellent education connects knowledge across disciplines. At UW Tacoma, excellence is founded on integrity, dedication and collaboration. We believe that learning is a vehicle that advances students toward fulfilling lives and meaningful careers.

Our community of learners is strengthened by a diversity of voices. Listening to the UW Tacoma community, we have identified four core values that guide us: Excellence, Community, Diversity and Innovation. These four values form the pillars of the institution we are building, guiding our academic programs and student services as they continue to develop.

When we live our values, we impart them to the greater community. Our students take them out into the world as teachers, entrepreneurs, business people, artists, scientists, urban planners, social workers, technical experts, nurses, administrators, thinkers, activists, and others who will make their mark on the world as leaders.

Our faculty incorporate these values in their teaching, research and service. And, our many community supporters and advisers use these values to guide their work to strengthen UW Tacoma.

In this issue of Terrain, you will see UW Tacoma’s values of excellence, diversity, community and innovation reflected in the story of Joseph Akuei (IAS ’07). A “Lost Boy of Sudan” refugee, he made the dean’s list while working full time and acclimating to a foreign culture. Another graduate, hospice grief counselor and author Julie Cicero (MSW ’05), has turned personal tragedy into a source of comfort and care for countless members of the Kitsap Peninsula community. A third graduate, Richard Vendiola (IAS ’07), earned his UW degree 33 years after he started on the Seattle campus. He is a beacon of hope for anyone who thinks it’s too late pursue their dreams. Social work professor Charles Emlet and his student Amanda Hudson work to shine light on the needs of older adults with HIV/AIDS, bringing excellence and innovation to a diverse community desperately in need of resources.

Read their stories and you will get a glimpse of UW Tacoma’s values at work in the world.