Communications sent to the UW Bothell community in October
October 26, 2020 | Well-being programming for faculty and staff
Dear UW Bothell faculty and staff,
Thanks to all of you who could join me online last week for my latest campus update. It was a good exercise to review the progress we have made in recent years and to share where we are now in some key areas, including academic programs, finances, and health and safety measures.
As I noted then, it is important to acknowledge that the success of our students is closely tied to our own well-being. We must all make time to take care of ourselves and our families. Remote operations and the shifts they demand in how we teach and work are hard, and exhaustion is a big stressor.
To help you navigate through the next few weeks, the Organizational Excellence & Human Resources team has pulled together new programming designed to improve our sense of well-being.
I encourage all of you to take advantage of these offerings. The programming includes counseling sessions, meditation sessions and media consumption resources as well as two multi-part workshops, one on practicing self-care and one on coping with grief and loss. Thank you to OE/HR for their efforts to care for our faculty and staff.
I want to call particular attention to one initiative in place for next week, so people can plan ahead. OE/HR has set up individual counseling hours on both Nov. 4 and Nov. 6. I hope you’ll set aside some time for self-care and sign up for a session.
For more information on this and other programming and resources, go to this new Holistic Well-Being webpage.
Take care,
Bjong Wolf Yeigh, Ph.D., F.ASME
Chancellor and Professor of Engineering
October 15, 2020 | Save the dates: campus update on Oct. 22 and new “Stay Engaged” events
Dear UW Bothell faculty and staff,
This autumn quarter, our physical campus remains mostly quiet, although we are all busier than ever, it seems, doing most of our work virtually. It is not an ideal environment for any of us, and I again thank you for your dedication.
Next Thursday, Oct. 22, I invite you to join me on a Zoom video call at 4 p.m. so I can update you on campus operations and answer some common questions I hear from faculty and staff. I will also share the latest enrollment and fundraising data, and talk about what they may mean for our fiscal future.
To support of our shared work, I am collaborating with various leaders across campus to develop a new series of events — called Stay Engaged — that will give us a new way to gather. These online events will allow us to provide you updates on current activities and new initiatives still in the planning stages.
I hope they will serve as yet another vehicle to help us stay engaged this academic year, despite our remote operations.
The new series starts with a focus on the three priorities of our strategic plan, Expanding Access, Achieving Excellence.
1. Stay Engaged: Diversity and Equity
On Monday, Oct. 26, starting at 10 a.m., Acting Dean of Diversity & Equity Wayne Au will offer an overview of Diversity Action Plan 2.0 and will share some updates on diversity and equity work at UW Bothell. You can get more information on our online calendar.
2. Stay Engaged: Community and Campus Engagement
On Thursday, Nov. 19, starting at 3 p.m., Deanna M. Kennedy, chair of the Community Engagement Council and associate dean for academics in the School of Business; Kara Adams, director of community engagement; and Beth Beam, assistant vice chancellor for Organizational Excellence & Human Resources, will lead a session on UW Bothell initiatives related to our engagement with the external community in the region and with the internal community of our campus. You can get more information on our online calendar.
3. Stay Engaged: Cross-Disciplinary Teaching and Scholarship
In February (exact day and time still to be determined), Vice Chancellor of Academic Affairs Sharon A. Jones will host a session on Cross-Disciplinary Teaching and Scholarship. We will share more details closer to the date.
To deepen engagement, at the end of each event participants are encouraged to send follow-up ideas and questions to uwbchlr@uw.edu. Staff members in the Office of the Chancellor will assist in getting and sharing responses from the appropriate people across campus.
I look forward to all of these new opportunities for us to connect.
Sincerely,
Bjong Wolf Yeigh, Ph.D., F.ASME
Chancellor and Professor of Engineering
October 6, 2020 | From the Desk of the Chancellor - Autumn 2020 edition
Dear students, faculty and staff,
Welcome to the new academic year. I am so glad we are back in community again, even if it will be mostly virtual for the foreseeable future. I know I miss interacting with everyone, especially seeing the enthusiasm and energy that comes when students are actively engaged in learning and exploring.
Many of you have been busy working this summer in class, in labs, on campus and at home. Others are coming back for the first time since spring. And we have new members of our community to welcome, including new faculty, new staff and more than 1,400 new incoming undergraduate and graduate students.
I am proud to report that this year we are welcoming our largest-ever new first-year class (the Class of 2024!) and now serve a total student body of 6,332.
We should all be proud to be a part of this resilient and vibrant UW Bothell community as we fulfill our commitment to increase access to an excellent UW education.
As we begin to settle in to this new quarter, I have some important thanks and a few updates I want to share with you.
Words of thanks
First, my heartfelt thanks go to all the staff, faculty and students who are helping our community respond to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and the impact being in remote operations has on the life of our community.
A special thanks goes to those of you who are behind the scenes working each day to prepare and maintain our physical campus.
I want to thank the faculty who have spent their summer doubling down on their efforts to prepare for autumn quarter.
Finally, I want to express my gratitude and appreciation to everyone for reaching out to care for others in our campus community or in the larger regional community.
We will do our best to keep everyone’s physical and mental health our highest priority while we focus on making this academic year as engaging and enriching as possible.
Community health and safety
If you have not done so I encourage you to enroll in the Husky Coronavirus Testing program — especially students living in group housing and any students, faculty and staff who will be coming to campus for whatever reason on a regular basis.
As we approach flu season, I also encourage you to consider getting a flu shot. One opportunity to do so is through the annual flu shot clinic on our campus, which is set for this Thursday, Oct. 8. You can make an appointment using this link.
Infrastructure investments
This summer, we deployed new resources through the Campus Infrastructure Initiative to strengthen our instructional and student services infrastructure as well as the work environment for our staff and faculty.
Funds for academic support were directed to an EAB case manager and to Academic Coaching for Student Success. If there are funds remaining, they will be directed to the schools and the First Year & Pre-Major Program to support faculty with remote instruction.
Student services support includes funds used by the Counseling Center to hire a term-appointed counseling psychologist. Orientation & Transition Programs has hired and trained staff facilitating the Personal, Academic and Community Coaching program. And the Student Technology Fee Committee has approved the financial support necessary to subscribe to the Mongoose texting platform, which will be used to facilitate the new “Ask Holly” program.
New investments have also been made in people and campus operations through Planning & Administration. Organizational Excellence & Human Resources is planning to create a campuswide program to support the holistic well-being of faculty and staff. The goal is to build our resilience as a community and to help staff and faculty proactively and compassionately respond to students and each other. P&A funds are also being directed toward a software tool that will be used to enhance remote and blended curricular, co-curricular and administrative environments across campus.
Strategic investments and planning
The UW Bothell Investment Fund earmarks $2.5 million for the 2020-21 biennium. This resource will be used to fund a broad range of projects developed by academic and administrative units all across UW Bothell.
The extended deadline for applications closed at the end of September, and proposals will be evaluated by the extended Campus Leadership Council (the CLC plus the chairs of advisory committees). Funding will be adjudicated in January.
As for our new Strategic Plan — Expanding Access, Achieving Excellence — implementation is a multi-year process beginning in 2020 and while we are a little delayed in focusing on this critical work due to the pandemic, we will share more information soon.
Unprecedented campaign success
As many of you have heard by now, the 10-year Campaign for UW Bothell concluded on June 30. When our previous campaign ended in 2010, we celebrated reaching our $3 million goal. In this campaign, we increased our goal by an order of magnitude to an ambitious $35 million.
I am thrilled to announce that together we raised $40.7 million for scholarships, research and campus programs. More than half of the 6,024 donors who participated were UW Bothell alumni, and hundreds more were our faculty, staff and students. Thank you.
I hope you share my pride in the many ways people in our campus community contributed their time, talent and treasure to make this campaign such a success. While our work to enhance access, equity and excellence continues, it is appropriate now to celebrate this inspiring demonstration of compassion and generosity, and in doing so, invite a renewed sense of hope for the future. I encourage you to visit the campaign stories website to revisit inspirational highlights of the past 10 years.
Campus construction
Design of a new STEM academic building for use by UW Bothell and Cascadia College is now underway and should be completed in summer 2021. A formal groundbreaking is anticipated next summer, and construction is planned to be completed in time to open the facility for the 2023-24 academic year.
As the existing Husky Village apartments are nearing the end of their useful life, we are exploring a proposal to replace them with new student housing and dining services at that site. In partnership with a private developer that will design, construct and operate the new facility, the proposed project would triple the number of beds available in student housing. Subject to Board of Regents approval, we expect that construction will take place in two phases between autumn 2021 and summer 2024 so that some on-campus housing will be available for students without interruption. We expect to fully open in autumn 2024 with the capacity to provide housing for about 1,000 students.
Calls to action
I have two requests I would like to make of each of you: Complete the census and, if you are eligible, vote.
Both actions are civic responsibilities that will make a difference in our local community, our state and our country. And as the largest and most diverse generation alive right now, students in particular have a chance to make a real impact if every eligible voter participates in elections. Through student programs and courses, UW Bothell faculty, staff and student leaders are actively educating our student body about voting and the 2020 general election. To get involved in these efforts, email Shauniece Drayton, civic engagement program manager, or email Mumina Ali, ASUWB government relations director. Faculty can also use this VR classroom form to request a short classroom presentation on voter registration.
My third call to action is to follow the Ws: Wear a mask. Wash your hands. Watch your distance.
We may still be in remote operations as we start this academic year but know that we are planning for a return to in-person operations, as soon as it is safe. To help bring that day closer, we need to do everything we can, in accordance with state and UW guidelines, to help stop the pandemic.
I look forward to seeing you all this academic year — first virtually and then, as soon as possible, in person.
Bjong Wolf Yeigh, Ph.D., F.ASME
Chancellor and Professor of Engineering
October 2, 2020 | UWB Fall 2020 - A message from the Dean of Student Affairs, Tim Wilson, Ph.D.
UWB Fall 2020 - A Message from the Dean of Student Affairs, Tim Wilson, Ph.D. from UW Bothell MMGD on Vimeo.