Spring quarter was a busy one as we wrapped up the academic year. We are currently conducting a search for a full-time Program Assistant, and I want to thank our search committee — Jennifer Mitchell, Noreen Slease, Rashan Greene, and Soky Choung — for their dedication to this process. Frankie Nogales has been an invaluable part-time team member, ensuring seamless make-up testing coverage and strong support at meetings and events. I am deeply appreciative of his contributions to the smooth operation of the OUE.
Looking ahead to Autumn quarter, I am thrilled to announce that we will be integrating AI literacy into several core courses through an AI-SEED grant. We also successfully secured STFC funding to upgrade some of our make-up testing computers, both grants arriving at just the right time.
Finally, this quarter has taken me beyond academic affairs, and I am excited to be building new partnerships across campus in support of student orientation and student life. I am grateful to continue in this position on a permanent basis and look forward to our continued collaborations.
We are deeply grateful to the instructors teaching this year, as well as to the schools and programs that continue to champion our courses. We had the pleasure of connecting with many of them at the Spring core faculty gathering and are looking forward to bringing the group together again at a fall retreat.
We partnered with the University Academic Advising and advisors from various schools and programs to host a majors/minors fair this Spring quarter held on April 13th. We are grateful to the 56 faculty and staff who signed up and helped. 76 students showed up. We collected feedback to improve for next year.
The Ad Hoc Undergraduate Education Academic Council
The Ad hoc Undergraduate Education Advisory Council (UEAC) has made a lot of progress by drafting bylaws and creating a course evaluation policy. The council reviewed course applications for Spring and Autumn quarter 2026 to check for alignment with UW's general education areas of inquiry. You can find agendas, minutes and documents on our website at https://www.tacoma.uw.edu/ue/ad-hoc-uea-council. Congratulations to the elected UEAC members starting 2026-27: Julia Aguirre, Will Burghart, Lisa Hoffman, Julie Masura, Riki Thompson, and Christine Stevens.
Technology and Infrastructure Upgrades
Since Spring quarter, we have been using UW Connect and automated our intake forms, making scheduling our services much more straightforward. We moved all our documents to SharePoint and have been archiving records. We will be upgrading the make-up testing computers soon.
We have been keeping up with the website, you can check it out at tacoma.uw.edu/ue.
Upcoming Work in 2026–27
The new program assistant will start on September 1st and we will be doing some onboarding. We are planning a core faculty retreat on September 28 and welcoming the new UEAC to continue the good work from this year.
We'll be back with another update at the end of Autumn Quarter. Have a wonderful Summer!
