UW Gazette, April 16, 1997
     
     Time is running short for people who want to submit
comments about UW's draft planning report, Building on
Accomplishment.
     The "fifth decade report" was published in January
after more than two years of work by a 12-member Commission
on Institutional Planning. Comments were invited, and the
commission promised to take them into account in preparing a
final report this summer. The report will then go to the UW
senate and board of governors for approval.
     "We've been getting lots of e-mail messages and memos,"
said UW provost Dr. Jim Kalbfleisch, talking about the
report at the April 1 meeting of the board of governors.
Kalbfleisch is chair of the planning commission.
     "We're expecting lots more during the next couple of
weeks," he added. "We've set a deadline of mid-April." He
added that comments received late will still be taken into
consideration if possible.
     Many of the comments received so far have told the
commission that it paid too little attention to the role of
research in the university, Kalbfleisch said.
     And that theme was taken up at the board meeting,
especially in remarks by Dr. John Hepburn of the chemistry
department, one of the faculty representatives on the board.
     "The role of a university in society is the creation
and dissemination of knowledge," Hepburn said. But the
"creation" half of the job is in danger at UW, he warned,
pointing out that the number of graduate students, who are
key figures in research, has dropped by 20 per cent in the
past three years, and research funding is falling sharply
too.
     "The fifth decade report has to address the question of
what we're going to do about this problem," Hepburn said.
Otherwise, he added, UW might as well give up any claim to
be "world class".
     The plan, to quote its introduction, "outlines UW's
heritage and distinctive mission, identifies challenges and
opportunities facing UW, presents some general recommen
dations, and makes specific recommendations that support
what the commission sees as three essential priorities for
the university."
     Those priorities: "to enhance academic excellence in
teaching and research, to strengthen the relevance of
teaching and research, and to provide an enabling and sup
portive work/study environment".
     The report describes UW as "an institution dedicated to
using innovative means to achieve traditional goals: the
pursuit of learning through scholarship, teaching, and re
search within a spirit of free enquiry and expression, for
the economic, social, and cultural benefit of society.É At
the heart of UW's distinctiveness is a culture of learning
by linking to the 'real world' which influences nearly
everything the university does. . . . "UW's vibrant and
complex culture is the result, in large measure, of the
creative tension arising from the strong individual identi
ties and autonomous relationships of the various Faculties
and colleges on the one hand, and, on the other, the forging
of a common vision and enterprise."
     The full text of Building on Accomplishment can be
found on UWinfo, and was published in the Gazette February
5.