University of Washington Tacoma (UW Tacoma)

The University of Washington Tacoma fosters a thriving and equitable society by educating diverse learners and expanding knowledge through partnership and collaboration with all our communities. As an urban-serving university, we: Expand access an urban-serving university, we: Expand access to higher education in an environment where every student has the opportunity to succeed Foster scholarship, research and creativity to address the challenging problems of our time and place Partner and collaborate for common good Catalyze the economic and social vitality of the region The University of Washington Tacoma (UW Tacoma) is a campus of the University of Washington and located in Tacoma, Washington, United States. It is one of the three campuses of the public university. The UW Tacoma campus opened its first classrooms in repurposed warehouses in downtown Tacoma in 1990 and opened its permanent campus in 1997. Following the establishment of The Evergreen State College in Olympia in 1967, interest in additional higher education opportunities in the South Sound continued to grow. In 1986, the Higher Education Coordination Board suggested branch campuses for both the University of Washington and Washington State University.[1] Tacoma and Bothell were chosen as new UW campus sites, and three locations were selected for new WSU campuses: Vancouver, the Tri-Cities and Spokane. The initial goal of the new campuses was to provide further education for the growing numbers of community college transfer students, as well as "time bound, place bound" students with limited access to educational opportunities in programs with "demonstrated regional needs."[2] The University of Washington Board of Regents selected four finalist sites for the Tacoma-area campus in September 1989 out of a pool of 20 reviewed sites: a 79-acre (32 ha) downtown site, a Hilltop site, an area adjacent to the Tacoma Community College campus, and a rural site near Interstate 5 in Fife.[4] The Hilltop and Fife sites were eliminated by the Board of Regents in March 1990, while a smaller downtown site near Union Station was added to the list of finalists.[5][6] The Union Station site was ultimately chosen for the permanent branch campus in November 1990.[7] The University of Washington Tacoma campus began classes on October 1, 1990 in downtown Tacoma's historic Perkins Building.[8] The 8 story structure was chosen in part for its capacity; during UW Tacoma's early years and construction of the permanent campus further south, enrollments comprised a maximum of approximately 401 juniors and seniors. During this time, downtown Tacoma's appearance and local reputation began to change. The current campus celebrated its long-awaited opening on May 29, 1997.[9] Since the opening of the first building, several others have been renovated. Part of the campus library formerly served as the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company's transformer house. Building names such as Mattress Factory and West Coast Grocery recall the structures' earlier uses. Transportation within the downtown area was improved with the addition of Sound Transit's 1.6-mile Tacoma Link light rail line in 2003. Following several years of transfer-only undergraduate admissions, UW Tacoma admitted its first freshman class of just under 200 students in Autumn of 2006. UW Tacoma expects to continue to increase enrollment and add additional buildings. In March 2011, the campus opened the renovated Russell T. Joy Building, the last of the formerly blighted warehouse buildings along the campus' Pacific Avenue boundary. The campus purchased Court 17 Apartments in 2016 as a dorm that now houses 290 students.[10] As of September 2016 the campus had 5000 students.[11] Tacoma School of the Arts (SOTA) students use UWT classroom space for their humanities classes. In return, the university uses SOTA's artistic resources for evening classes. ...view more