Co-Producing the City: UW Tacoma as Anchor Institution

This time of year it can be hard to think past all the holiday parties and vacation plans, but here's something to put on your calendar for after the lights are down and tne New Year's resolutions are made: UW Tacoma's 2015 Urban Studies Annual Debra Friedman Lecture this year will feature Portland State University's president, Wim Wiewel speaking on "Co-Producing the City, UW Tacoma as an Anchor Institution."

Portland State University has operated from its location along the downtown Portland Park Blocks since the 1950s, now covering 50 blocks and serving nearly 30,000 students. Wiewel's experience as president of PSU, and prior to that at University of Illinois at Chicago and University of Baltimore, could shed light on how the relatively young UWT can continue to be an integral and active part of the urban fabric of downtown Tacoma in the long-term. From the event page:

PORTLAND STATE UNIVERSITY HAS LONG BEEN DEEPLY ENGAGED WITH ITS COMMUNITY. The relationships with business, government, civic and community organizations and institutions are becoming more and more institutionalized and permanent. What does it take to move from individual projects and episodic partnerships to long-lasting partnerships that co-produce the metropolitan area — physically, economically, socially, culturally? Based on his previous work in Chicago and Baltimore, PSU’s president WIM WIEWEL elevated and deepened PSU’s practice, which may hold insights for UW Tacoma.

Wiewel will share his perspective, including PSU's focus on expanding civic partnerships and strategic investments; a focus that comes out of five guiding themes established at PSU under his leadership:

• Provide civic leadership through partnerships
• Improve student success
• Achieve global excellence
• Enhance educational opportunity
• Expand resources and improve effectiveness

A lot of this sounds like UWT's commitment to being an urban serving university in Tacoma. The details of what goes on at PSU, and insights and perspectives from a speaker who has worked at a number of urban universities, could be interesting ways of framing the conversation about UWT's ongoing role in Tacoma. With the university on the verge of naming a new chancellor, and development moving along on several dowtown projects, this seems like a pretty relevant conversation right now.

What do you think of those five themes from Portland as applied to Tacoma? Is there anything you would change on that list?

Debra Friedman Lecture: Co-Producing the City, UW Tacoma as an Anchor Institution
January 15, 2015
6-7:30 p.m.
William W. Phillip Hall
University of Washington, Tacoma