Autumn 2024 Quarterly Newsletter

From the Vice Chancellor

Dear Campus Community,

During the last month, I’ve been thinking about this quote more than usual. Yes, life throws you the unexpected, and of course resilience is something to be applauded, and resilience phrasing can be inspirational, and so on. But, for those who need to be resilient to deal with today and move towards tomorrow, it is exhausting — and that reality isn’t often discussed.

I offer this reflection recognizing that at any point in time, there will be members of our community who are uncertain about what lies ahead, what it means for them, how resilient they may need to be and how much more they can handle. Let’s acknowledge how exhausting that is even as we are grateful for the efforts of so many to support our community through the unexpected.

This newsletter includes key updates from this fall quarter regarding the Division of Academic Affairs. While our five schools are the core of our division, this newsletter focuses on central services that support our academic core. Main updates are organized by faculty and students along with other key highlights. As always, to share feedback with Academic Affairs on how we may better meet your needs, please fill out our feedback form.

I hope the upcoming winter break brings you restorative time in community with those who genuinely care about you and your reality as we approach 2025. Thank you for all you do for UW Bothell.

With gratitude,

Sharon A. Jones, Ph.D., VCAA

Cross-disciplinary
Connected Learning
Community Engagement

In Case You Missed It

Leadership Searches

• The search committee for the next Dean of UW Bothell’s School of STEM brought in three finalists to meet with the campus community in late October. An announcement on the appointment will be made shortly.
• We are close to finalizing our search for a senior research scientist to serve as the director for the Collaborative for Socio-Ecological Engagement (CoSEE) for a five-year term. An email announcement will be sent out soon.

Late last spring, the  Faculty Senate approved legislation that expanded candidates’ rights in the promotion process and resulted in changes to  Chapter 24-54 Procedures for Promotion of the UW Faculty Code. Updated resources, including a timeline, can be found on the  Faculty HR SharePoint site.

The FY26 Annual Resource Planning  process has started. Starting this year, all UW campuses will align planning for academic year 2025-26 faculty hiring within the FY26 budget development process. There are some key upcoming dates to be mindful of, so please see the important dates section below for more details.

Vice Chancellor’s Leadership Council autumn quarter updates. The VLC, which is comprised of the campus deans and leadership of the central academic units, received updates and deliberated on the following matters:

• VLC purpose and team strengthening
• Summer session net revenue calculations and distributions
• Carnegie Community Engagement reclassification process
• UW Bothell International student recruitment pilot
• FY25 budgets, shortfalls, and prioritization process for the central academic units
• Fundraising goals for the central academic units
• UW changes regarding additional compensation for faculty (EO 59)
• Process changes for P&T based on the new Senate legislation
• Feedback to the provost on the tri-campus structure
• Feedback to the division on enrollment management on a merit aid proposal for graduate students
• Proposal from EAB to aid graduate program recruitment

On Wednesday, Nov. 13, almost 400 supporters of UW Bothell — including alumni, community members, champions and partners — came together at the Bellevue Westin for a special fundraising event: the  I UW Bothell Luncheon. The event was a celebration of our unique campus and the impact of our inspiring students. The central academic affairs units were proud to host two tables at the event, in addition to the many tables hosted by our schools.

Student Updates

During spring and summer 2024, Student Academic Success collaborated with UW Bothell’s Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and Office of Institutional Research to conduct eight focus groups to identify the key contributors to our students’ sense of academic and social belonging. The students identified four key experiences that impact their sense of belonging: (1) faculty in the classroom, (2) physical spaces, (3) student resources, and (4) events. A detailed report of this work will be available in January 2025.

This quarter, Student Academic Success also collaborated with UW’s Undergraduate Academic Affairs in Seattle and UW Tacoma’s Student Success to offer 2024: Dialogue, Disagreement and Democracy across the tri-campus community. More than 40 students are enrolled in the UW Bothell sections, and UW Bothell faculty Dr. Karam Dana is a featured speaker in the course.

We launched the Student Success Network (SSN) this quarter that includes staff from various campus offices, along with leaders in each school. The SSN meets quarterly to collaborate and communicate across units to promote UWB students’ success.

The Academic Learning Commons supports students through personalized, one-to-one sessions for academic tutoring and success coaching. At the beginning of this academic year, ALC collaborated with Orientation & Transition Programs for our inaugural “Husky Launch” event. We offered brief 20-minute workshops on essential academic skills, including notetaking, reading college texts and calendar management. These sessions equipped students with fundamental tools for success while in college.

To learn more about Academic Success Coaching, the Quantitative Skills Center and the Writing & Communication Center, view the ALC’s 2023-2024 Annual Report. We’re proud to share our progress and excited to keep building on our impact this year.

The inaugural 30-scholar cohort in our State Academic Rising Scholars (STARS) program is completing their first quarter. The STARS scholars are currently taking courses in calculus, BCUSP and BCORE. They are also starting to explore career readiness with the Career Center and receiving support from the Academic Learning Commons. We are planning their second year, which will be heavily focused on computing, and recruiting new scholars for the upcoming cohort. The much-anticipated STARS space is expected to open in winter 2025 on the 3rd floor of UW1.

Our new Academic Advising unit is up and running! Our space has a new welcome desk, signage and staff workstations. We will be installing drop-in spaces in the coming months. Stay tuned for an official grand opening in winter quarter! Advising staff are continuing to support students through the fall quarter and assist with winter quarter registration, along with supporting various campus events like Welcome Weeks and Preview Day. We are currently hiring two new advisors to round out our staffing and are continuing to streamline our new processes and procedures.

We hosted the inaugural Graduate Student Welcome and Campus Orientation on Sept. 17. Approximately 120 incoming graduate students attended, which included RSVPs and onsite registrants. Also, the new director of Graduate Enrollment Management Services (GEMS) for the UW’s Graduate School, Jesse Knappenberger, visited campus on October 28 to meet with Graduate Program advisors and coordinators to discuss how GEMS can better support our graduate programs.

Our First Year & Pre-Major Program continues its important work supporting new students through its Discovery Core Experience classes. This autumn, we taught more than 50 sections of this course. You can find 60-second syllabi for these sections here. The DCX classes support students in developing fundamental skills for success in their college journey and beyond. Several of the classes are also incorporating the Constructive Dialogue Institute’s “Perspectives Program” that helps students develop skills for having difficult dialogues across differences.

Connected Learning Year in Review:The FY2024 Connected Learning annual report is “hot off the press.” It includes an overview of program reports and student outcomes in high-impact experiential learning.

Gift wrapping at the Collaboratory: Make gift wrapping fun! Beginning on Wednesday, Dec. 11, connect with students while you cross this holiday task off your list. Supplies such as wrapping paper, ribbon, boxes, tags, stickers, tape and scissors will be provided. Go to the Collaboratory’s online calendar for the full schedule.

Faculty Updates

The Learning & Teaching Collaborative continues to support faculty through events, consultations and collaborative learning experiences to share best practices and instructional support strategies. Last month, we partnered with Cascadia College to host an event on trauma’s impact in higher education, fostering cross-campus dialogue. This quarter we continue to support the High-Impact Practices Faculty Fellowship for Pre-Major Students in their second year through the implementation of their new High-Impact Practice assignments. We project that approximately 835 students will participate in these enhanced assignments from summer 2024 through spring 2025. Additionally, we continue to develop opportunities to cultivate AI literacy and support across campus and meet monthly in our AI Community of Practice.

At the recommendation of the Faculty Senate and academic affairs leaders on UW’s three campuses, the provost approved a proposal to formalize the collaboration that produced the Teaching @ UW website. The new Teaching @ UW network consists of an executive sponsor group that includes Vice Chancellor Sharon A. Jones and her counterparts at Seattle and Tacoma; an Advisory Council of faculty representatives from Bothell, Tacoma and Seattle including Jason Naranjo and Becca Price from Bothell; and a Leadership Committee comprised of Deborah Hathaway (director of UW Bothell’s Learning & Teaching Collaborative) and her counterparts at Seattle and Tacoma. This network will provide UW instructors with more access to high-quality programming and resources, while also creating a mechanism for faculty input and allowing us to continue to progress and develop our campus-specific educational initiatives at the local level.

Let’s celebrate several recent research accomplishments:

The journal “Pasados,” co-founded by School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences faculty member Yolanda Padilla, launched its first issue.

Two of our faculty received Population Health Tier 1 awards:

• Building partnerships for rural mental health access and health equity community-engaged research. Investigators: Janessa M. Graves, Department of Family Medicine; Carmen Gonzalez, Department of Communication; and Jody O. Early, School of Nursing & Health Studies.
• Stress Reduction Intervention for African American Kinship Caregivers in Skipped-Generation Households. Investigators: LaShawnda Pittman, Department of American Ethnic Studies; Wadiya Udell, School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences; Barb Taylor, King County Kinship Collaboration; Cynthia Green, King County Kinship Collaboration; and Mary Prescott, King County Kinship Collaboration.

Yue Bian, a School of Educational Studies faculty member, received funding to participate in the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) Faculty Success Program.

We continue to support research investigators in applying for and managing external funding and awards. The following faculty received awards this fall:

• Hala Annabi, National Science Foundation
• Annuska Zolyomi, Connected Learning Alliance
• Dan Jaffe, Utah Department of Environmental Quality
• Shima Abadi, Applied Research in Acoustics

Applications are open for the 2025 Japan Studies Institute (JSI) at San Diego State University (June 2-15, 2025). This immersive, multidisciplinary program provides faculty and administrators with a comprehensive introduction to Japanese culture, history and society. Participants will collaborate with peers from American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU) member institutions to globalize undergraduate education through Japanese studies, enriching both curricula and co-curricular activities. The application deadline is Friday, Feb. 28, 2025.

As part of their efforts to strengthen support for and leadership development of academic leaders and faculty, the Offices of the Provost and Academic Personnel are partnering with Professor Christine Cimini and Emeritus Associate Professor Alan Kirtley from the UW School of Law’s Mediation Clinic to  provide training and tools to effectively navigate conflict. This eight-hour interactive training equips participants with skills that will help them: (1) engage in difficult conversations in a respectful and productive manner, (2) de-escalate situations that may become hostile or inflamed and (3) approach conflict constructively to reach resolutions that benefit all parties. Learn more and apply here (deadline Dec. 16, 2024).

Making Faculty Evaluation More Equitable. While the academy has changed in dramatic ways over the past 20 years, faculty evaluation practices have remained largely the same. In this interactive workshop, Dr. Beth Mitchneck demonstrates how changes in the metrics and processes used in faculty evaluation can create more equitable outcomes. The workshop will 1) review research on faculty evaluation practices; 2) identify how potential embedded biases may impact the outcomes of evaluation processes; and 3) present tools to conduct equitable evaluations across gender, race, rank, discipline, and subdiscipline. Dr. Mitchneck is Professor Emerita at the University of Arizona, a longtime faculty success advocate and practitioner, and a former National Science Foundation Program Officer for ADVANCE. When: Monday, January 27, 2025 from 3:30 – 5:00 pm in HUB 145. RSVP for this workshop here by January 21, 2025.

Upcoming Faculty/Staff Program Deadlines

• By Dec. 9, schools are providing enrollment forecasts for FY26-FY30, tuition rate recommendations for AY 2025-26 for fee-based programs and any proposals for locally funded unit adjustments.
• Nominate an outstanding leader from UW Bothell for the Thorud Leadership Award by sharing their story and the impact they have made on our community. The Dec. 13 nomination deadline is fast approaching.
• Conflict Resolution Program for academic leaders and faculty: Applicants must arrange to attend all in-person activities as well as submit a brief bio, a statement on the benefits of their participation and preferred quarter. Nominations should be sent to vpap@uw.edu by Dec. 16.
• Dec. 23 is the nomination deadline for both the Methods Exploration and Enhancement Award and Publication and Production Award.
• The following are due for schools by Jan. 8, 2025: FY26-30 expense forecasts in adaptive, faculty hiring plans for AY 25-26, and school policies and plans for allocating faculty unit adjustments/salary increases.
• The following are due for central units by Jan. 8, 2025: Budget narratives and FY26 operating budgets in adaptive.
• Jan. 31, 2025, is the deadline for both the Midcareer Faculty Fellowship applications and the Scholarship, Research and Creative Practice Award.
• Feb. 28, 2025, is the application deadline or the 2025 Japan Studies Institute at San Diego State University, set for June 2-15, 2025.

Opportunities to Share with your Students

• Friday, Dec. 6, 2024, 11 a.m. How to Add Community Engagement to Your College Experience
• Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024 12 p.m. Money Talks: Financing Study Abroad
• Wednesday, Jan. 15, 2025, 2 p.m. Summer Research Unlocked (for undergraduate students)
• Monday, Jan. 27, 2025, Mary Gates Scholarship – Application Deadline
• Tuesday, by Feb.11, 2025, Encourage your pre-major and first-generation students to apply for the Digital Scholars Program – Application Deadline
• Friday, Feb. 21, 2025, UW Bothell Study Abroad Ambassador Scholarship – Application Deadline
• Opening in February: UG Research student applications due to present in UW (Seattle) Symposium

Upcoming Events & Critical Deadlines

• Dec. 7–13, 2024: Autumn finals week
• Dec. 17, 2024: Autumn quarter grades due
• Jan. 6, 2025: Winter quarter begins
• March 15-21, 2025: Winter finals week
• March 26, 2025: Winter quarter grades due
• March 31, 2025: Spring quarter begins
• June 5, 2025: Student Recognition event
• June 7-13, 2025: Spring finals week
• June 13, 2025: Graduate Hooding event
• June 15, 2025: Commencement
• June 18, 2025: Spring quarter grades due