Construction on the west side of campus is poised to make lasting changes in the University’s STEM programs. These are funded through support from the Trustees and state legislature, which are created and maintained by frequently meeting to discuss their vision.
“Our role is to represent the University and interact with the legislators, […] get financial support and build goodwill within the legislature,” Trustee Dick Scarlett said.
The Legislative Relations Committee of the Board of Trustees met this past Thursday to discuss budget alterations and goals for moving forward. As the committee discussed among themselves, talk of financial support introduced a dialogue concerning the UW Science Initiative.
The purpose that brought this committee together may have been to find ways to interact with legislators, as stated by Scarlett, but the representation of the University is essential in acquiring funding for the vision of higher education at UW.
In 2014, UW began the process of introducing plans to the governor and legislature to change the way the sciences are approached and taught at the University. Laboratories and instruction method alterations coincide with the goal UW has to become a top-tier STEM facility.
On the corner of 9th and Lewis, the new building is under construction. The idea behind this new structure is that it will be used for collaborative research.
“We’ve got all these disciplines, we’ve got computer science, we’ve got zoology, we’ve got soil science – they’re all these things on the sidelines,” Trustee Kermit Brown said. “But the big thing in science today is for all of them to work together.”
“This is a building for the purpose of putting cross-disciplinary teams together to work on projects.”
The current budget set forth for the Science Initiative is $100 million, which accounts for the construction, rooftop greenhouse, lab equipment and resources devoted to the development of the project.
Botany, Zoology, Physiology, Molecular Biology, Chemistry, Physics and Astronomy are some of the UW core science programs that will be offered through this building.
“[With] this, you go in what we call an active learning environment that is just totally different from what you’d anticipate otherwise,” Fiscal and Legal Affairs Committee Chair Jeff Marsh said. “I want to say that 80 percent of the undergraduate kids will run through this facility. It’s exciting.”
What sets this new facility and the Science Initiative apart is the prospect of engaging students in a way that has not been done before. Involving students in their own research with the opportunity to make full use of University resources is the goal.
“It’s project-oriented, it’s project-based,” said Brown. “So instead of going to class and learning all this dry stuff, you go in and get into these interactive student things in a way you go on a project – it’s more hands-on. But you still gotta learn the stuff at the end.”
