Welcome and updates from Academic Affairs

Welcome, faculty and staff at UW Tacoma, to a new academic year. I hope that you have had a restorative summer. Please see below several important transitions, updates and resources for Academic Affairs. 

I want to start with a warm welcome for our 12 new tenure- and teaching-track faculty, who will be individually introduced at the first Campus Update on October 6, as well as Dr. Yoko Furukawa, Director of our Office of Research, and Keying Wen, Personnel Manager in Academic HR. Thank you to the many faculty and staff who participated in these hiring processes and helped bring such wonderful people to our community. 

Leadership transitions

I shared last year that Dr. Cheryl Greengrove, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, will be returning to her full-time faculty role in SIAS at the end of December 2025. She has seen this campus through so much and been a part of building SIAS, the campus, the faculty, and the research infrastructure here.  We thank her for her tireless and creative energies that have been central to growing this campus and making it a place where faculty thrive.  Later this month, we will launch a search for a reconfigured role of Associate Vice Chancellor for Faculty Success, supporting faculty research, teaching and professional development across the range of faculty career stages, ranks and titles. This search will be internal to our campus, and the position will be posted soon. Working closely with the Associate Vice Chancellor will be a Faculty Fellow supporting the new Faculty Development Collaborative, a coordinated hub of faculty development resources, programs and funding opportunities meant to advance a space for vision and advocacy around faculty development. Information about that Faculty Fellow position will go out later this quarter.   

We also thank Dr. Deirdre Raynor for her eleven years of committed service as Executive Director of the Office of Undergraduate Education, and for supporting the development of equity-minded programs, including the Summer Bridge to Success Program and the Strengthening Educational Excellence through Diversity faculty development program. We deeply appreciate her contributions to our campus community.  Dr. Raynor will return to her full-time faculty role in SIAS later this quarter.  We welcome Dr. Menaka Abraham, Teaching Professor in the School of Engineering and Technology, who will transition into the Interim Executive Director role in October and serve in that capacity for this academic year.  She brings over two decades of impactful student-centered faculty experience at UWT and has served as Chair and Vice Chair of Faculty Assembly, and helped successfully lead the development of our current Academic Plan. We will run a search for this position later in the academic year. 

Student Success

The student success initiative of the past three years is transitioning to a permanent campus council to institutionalize and build upon this initial and fruitful work. Of particular note is the strong work done by last year’s committee on identifying curricular barriers to student progress, supporting better student advising data systems through the adoption of Slate, identifying the need to better support graduate students, and increasing students’ sense of belonging and purpose in the classroom. Our recent improvements in retention and graduation rates are a compliment to every person on this campus who has helped make it happen. Bonnie Becker and Amanda Figueroa will co-lead this council with support from Mentha Hynes-Wilson and me. 

Faculty support

Faculty face potentially challenging and stressful dynamics navigating teaching and research in this charged environment. These stresses are real, and the institution is here to support you. 

• Yoko, Cheryl, and the outstanding team in the Office of Research, are here to help you with any changes in the external funding environment.
• The University of Washington maintains a website of resources for faculty experiencing targeted harassment. Please familiarize yourself with those resources and note your UW Tacoma resources with whom you may also consult: your Chair, Dean, the Director of Academic Human Resources, and/or Campus Safety.
• In that context, I have heard concerns about potential public records requests for information about your respective teaching environments. The University of Washington has established procedures for legally complying with public records requests while maintaining our commitment to academic freedom. 

In the months ahead, the Offices of Academic Affairs and Equity and Inclusion will partner to create spaces for faculty and staff to discuss related concerns and provide ongoing support.  

Office of Digital Learning/Office of Teaching Excellence

The Office of Digital Learning has been renamed the Office of Teaching Excellence, a name that more accurately reflects its mission, commitment to enhancing pedagogy, fostering innovative teaching, and empowering faculty with the skills and knowledge to create engaging and impactful learning experiences for all students. This shift also aligns with UW's commitment to excellence in teaching as demonstrated in the new Core Elements of Effective Teaching in the Faculty Code.

Digital Accessibility

The UW Digital Accessibility Initiative has been planning for compliance with the new ADA rules for digital accessibility, which go into effect in April 2026. 

UW Tacoma has launched a new centralized Accessibility at UW Tacoma webpage. This site brings together information that was previously scattered across multiple departments. The Digital Accessibility section provides information on topics like:

• Tools for checking your accessibility score
• Creating accessible course materials
• Monthly workshops, training, and support services

To augment central resources, we have charged a UWT working group, chaired by Darcy Janzen of the Office of Teaching Excellence, to strategize on how to best support our faculty and staff. That group is currently developing proposals for direct and personal assistance on our campus. 

We recommend that faculty focus in fall and winter on learning relevant accessibility remediation skills. Progress will be incremental. Please watch for emails from Darcy each month, as our compliance with the ADA is both in support of our students and a legal obligation of the university. 

Again, I welcome you to the academic year and look forward to advancing the campus and the university in partnership with all of you. I am proud of the work you all do and we will continue to make a profound and positive difference in our students’ lives, our disciplines and the communities we serve.