Closing One Chapter and Beginning Another

 Last Friday, October 3^rd, the University of Washington Tacoma said goodbye to their 25^th anniversary, said hello to their 26^th the new academic year.  The next 25 years are sure to bring bright minds and innovation to Tacoma and the South Sound area.

The newly appointed Chancellor Pagano welcomed the first year students with words of encouragement and advice. Many students in the crowd are Tacoma natives and are the first in their families to get the opportunity to go to college, making convocation an extremely special event to celebrate the students’ grand accomplishment. Last year the University was at 68% first generation with their student body population just around 4,500 students. This year is sure to increase in both size and in first generation college goers. 

The University prides itself on its Urban Serving mission, which is why Convocation runs through the Downtown area, to show incoming students not only the partnerships that the University has fostered but to show them how much their community supports them. The University is a member of the Coalition of Urban Serving Universities. The University and the coalition define themselves as “a network of public, urban, research universities committed to creating an educated workforce, building strong communities and improving the health of diverse populations.”

Tacoma is so unique in the way that it was the community who brought UW Tacoma to life and the community who has supported them in so many ways.  Not many Universities get to say that. Universities and their communities usually are going in two different directions but this is not the case for Tacoma and UW Tacoma. They have grown some much together and continue to grow side by side, serving the South Sound. With the University’s next building project in their sights, they are set to grow once again with the Urban Solutions Center, promising to bring with it more partnerships and students poised to become the future of Tacoma.