Letter from the Dean

In November 2003, Arts and Sciences student Allyssa Lamb was selected as a Rhodes Scholar. The award recognizes her intelligence, success, and passion for learning—something her UW professors have recognized, and nurtured, since her arrival on campus. The award also recognizes something else: the quality of a UW education.

	David Hodge

Since 2000, three Rhodes Scholars have come from the UW, all with degrees from the College of Arts and Sciences. This is no coincidence. We attract some of the nation’s finest students and provide them with a world-class education. We challenge them and they, in turn, challenge us.

This relationship often begins before students enroll and continues long after graduation. While the conventional view is that college is a four-year experience for students—a small but influential period of their lives—this is not an accurate picture of the College of Arts and Sciences.
Arts and Sciences cares deeply about K-12 education and reaches out to younger students through special programs on campus, like our annual Math Day for high school students and our UW World Series performances for school groups. College faculty and students also volunteer in the schools, sharing their expertise in fields ranging from literature to astronomy.

After graduating from the UW, many Arts and Sciences alumni continue their relationship with the University at touchpoints throughout their lives. Some visit campus for lectures and concerts. Others, like the three alumni profiled in “Three Routes Back to Arts & Sciences,” become involved with a UW program later in life, experiencing the campus in a whole new way. We cannot predict what our alumni’s involvement will be, but it is our goal to be engaged with them for a lifetime.

In addition to their other roles, alumni serve as a mirror for the College. Their success is a measure of our success. We learn a great deal by seeing where they are ten or twenty years after graduation and asking how their education did, or did not, prepare them. This is the true test of an education, and it helps us continue to improve the College.

In May, the College can ask these questions of four highly accomplished alumni, our 2004 Distinguished Alumnus Award honorees. These talented individuals—Michael Christensen (‘70, MFA, Drama), Tess Gallagher (‘67, BA, Education; ‘71, MA, English), Saad Eddin Ibrahim (‘68, PhD, Sociology) and Isiah M. Warner (‘77, PhD, Chemistry)—will be honored at the College’s Celebration of Distinction dinner on May 20. Each has brought passion and creativity to his or her field, making a difference in many lives.

I invite you to join me at the Celebration of Distinction, and I hope that you, like the alumni in this newsletter, take full advantage of the College’s offerings throughout your entire life.

Sincerely,

David Hodge
Dean
206-543-5340
hodge@u.washington.edu

[Winter/Spring 2004 - Table of Contents]