Year in review: A new chancellor, new classroom space and other highlights of 2011

As we welcome 2012, here’s a quick recap of 2011 at UW Tacoma: 

• January: Construction begins on Tioga Library Building, a four-story facility that will include a sky bridge to the existing Library. The new building is slated to open in spring 2012. 
• February: The Pierce Conservation District presents the 2010 Stream Team Group of the Year award to students, staff and faculty of UW Tacoma's Environmental Program. The district cited the program's service learning projects at First Creek and Wapato Lake and student-led restoration efforts.
• March: The renovated Joy Building opens for classes. In April, the Tacoma-Pierce County Chamber honors the building with its Ghilarducci Award, which recognizes the best successful new development, renovation or beautification in downtown Tacoma. 
• • April: Michael Honey, the Haley Endowed Professor of Humanities at UW Tacoma, receives the 2011 Guggenheim Fellowship. The national award will support Honey’s oral history project on John Handcox, an important but little-known figure in African American and labor history who wrote songs, poetry and stories about tenant farmers’ lives in the Great Depression. 
• • April: Gov. Chris Gregoire signs a bill into law, allowing all campuses of UW and Washington State University to offer doctoral degree programs. UW Tacoma is developing a doctorate of education degree.
• May: Civil rights icon Ruby Bridges speaks on campus to a sold-out crowd. In 1960, Bridges was the first black child to attend an all-white elementary school in the South.
• June: An estimated 1,150 students graduate at the Tacoma Dome. The grads include students in two new majors, Healthcare Leadership and Information Technology and Systems.
• July: Debra Friedman takes over as chancellor of UW Tacoma. The UW grad comes most recently from Arizona State University, where she served as vice president, chief administrator of the Downtown Phoenix campus and dean of the College of Public Programs.
• July: Chancellor Friedman launches the Step Up Scholarships initiative. The initiative raises and distributes funds to help students struggling to fill the widening gap between the costs of a UW Tacoma education and available financial aid.
• August: Sierra Magazine, the official publication of the Sierra Club, names UW the coolest school in America. The title stems from initiatives at the UW Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma campuses to operate sustainably and limit contributions to global warming.
• Fall: UW Tacoma sees record enrollment of 3,662 students, up by almost 10 percent over the previous autumn.
• October: Seymour Hersh, the Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who exposed the My Lai Massacre during  the Vietnam War, speaks on campus.  
• • November: UW Tacoma, University of Puget Sound and McCarver Elementary School receive the Outstanding Project award from The Greater Metro Parks Foundation. Students and faculty at the three schools worked together on the Zina Linnik Project to renovate and expand two parks.  
• • November: UW Tacoma celebrates UW’s 150^th birthday with Husky-themed games and purple and yellow cupcakes. Nearly 400 UW Tacoma alumni, students, staff and faculty pose for a historic photo in the shape of the university’s “W” logo.