From the Dean

Summers never seem to last long enough, especially in Seattle, and especially this year. The near-constant sunshine and warmth were the perfect balm for our budgetary woes.

	Ana Mari Cauce

It’s not that campus is closed. In fact, it doesn’t even slow down all that much. Most of our faculty continue to spend time on campus, and more than a few who are off campus take their students with them—to Rome, Prague, London, Beijing, Jerusalem, Edinburgh, Buenos Aires, and a host of other places—through UW study abroad programs.  Wherever they are, virtually all our faculty continue to work on their scholarship, research, and creative endeavors, often involving students in their projects. And they continue to pursue grant support—over the four months of summer, our faculty submitted 374 research grant proposals.

Student life also abounds on campus during the summer.  While the numbers are smaller than during other quarters, many students take a class or two, either to graduate more quickly or to ease the class load during the school year, making more time for research projects, extracurricular activities, or work. And then there are all the secondary school students here to attend camps in everything from math to dance. Several summer visitors remarked on the number of teens and preteens they ran into as they toured the campus.

What I like best about summer is that I spend more of my campus time outside my office. Early this summer, I went to a Mariners game and cookout with students participating in Camp Spanglish (featured in this issue), and was amazed at the strength of the bonds these young students from across the Atlantic forged while strengthening their language skills. Later I taught a class in the Summer Transition Program (STP), which is run out of the Office of Minority Affairs.

STP is a kind of academic “boot camp” with students spending a month on campus taking classes, learning study skills, and adjusting to college life in advance. As part of my STP class, students conducted a research study in which they constructed a hypothesis, collected and analyzed data, and presented results at a poster session—the kind of learning that’s a hallmark of education in a research university. Working with these student-scholars, as well as other STP instructors and some exceptionally fine TAs, was the perfect reminder of why we’re all here. Our business is building the future, one discovery at a time, one student at a time. It’s what we do inside and outside the classroom year round.

As you read through the stories about our students, faculty, and staff in Perspectives, I think you’ll see that the future looks exceedingly bright. Visit our website (www.artsci.washington.edu) from time to time for more news about the goings-on in the College as we count down to our 150th anniversary in 2011. We want to make sure to draw upon the rich legacy of our past as we continue to be responsive to the challenges that lay ahead.

Ana Mari Cauce
Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Earl R. Carlson Professor of Psychology and Professor of American Ethnic Studies
casdean@u.washington.edu

Return to Table of Contents, September 2009 issue

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