washington business
You have said in interviews that one of the things that attracted you to WSU was the state’ s commitment to funding that allowed for tuition reductions. Why is that so important to you?
“ From a big-picture economic standpoint, keeping tuition costs in check allows us to educate more students who earn degrees in fields the employers of our state need.”
It’ s pretty basic, really. I’ ve seen the difference a college education makes. I’ ve experienced that difference in my own life, and I’ ve seen it in the lives of students I’ ve had the pleasure of teaching earlier in my career and in the lives of the students I’ ve served as a university administrator the last 20 years. College transforms lives. We’ re absolutely committed to providing that opportunity to every individual who’ s interested and qualified. And, to make the college dream widely available, it’ s essential to keep tuition and related costs under control. I’ m ecstatic to be leading a university in a state that has rolled back tuition. Just consider our student body for a moment. This fall— for the first time in WSU’ s 126-year history— we enrolled more than 30,000 students statewide and online. Of our entering freshmen, almost 40 percent were firstgeneration college students. That means many of the families of those students are stretching family budgets to give a daughter or a son the opportunity to open the doors a college education provides. We’ re passionate about marshaling all the resources we can to help the dreams of parents and their children become reality. From a bigpicture economic standpoint, keeping tuition costs in check allows us to educate more students who earn degrees in fields the employers of our state need. And that, of course, helps fuel our economy.
WSU is known for being a cutting-edge institution, from viticulture to veterinary school. What is your vision for building on the successes of the university and what new paths do you think can be carved under your leadership?
We’ ve launched a major initiative at WSU we call the“ Drive to 25.” It’ s our focus on becoming one of the nation’ s top 25 public research universities by 2030. This goal will guide all our institutional-level decision making for the next several years. What does all that mean? In simplistic terms, we’ re going to work hard to up our game in two significant ways: One, by strengthening the overall academic experience of our undergraduate and graduate students so that they receive a truly transformative education, and two, by accelerating the development of a preeminent research portfolio. Achieving these goals is critical to the future wellbeing of our institution. kirk schulz at a glance
Growing our reputation is essential for us to attract students, garner external research funding, and establish new partnerships locally, nationally and globally. Ultimately, our successes prepare the workforce, solve tough societal challenges, and deliver innovations and discoveries that improve our state, nation and world.
On a slightly different, but related track, launching a medical school opens up numerous possibilities. We’ ll see new research funding opportunities— many of them multidisciplinary in nature. A medical school ramps up the possibilities in addressing our Grand Challenges research initiative focused on sustaining health. And, there’ s no doubt that adding a medical school to WSU’ s portfolio enhances our overall reputation. Bottom line, a medical school benefits all the residents of our state.
As you no doubt learned quickly— you’ re either a Husky or a Cougar— there’ s little or no middle ground. In a break from that tradition, how are you and the new University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce breaking down the communication barrier for the betterment of both universities and the students you serve?
Ana Mari and I have a very good relationship. We stand united in our commitment to serving the needs of the state. We understand that the future of our state is both linked to and dependent upon the future of Washington’ s two great public research institutions. The UW and WSU are actively exploring additional partnerships on both the academic and research fronts. We are unwavering in our commitment to meet the demands of Washington’ s economy and ensure the state’ s place as a center of innovation, discovery and creativity. To give you one example, UW and WSU collaborate to operate the Washington Stormwater Center in Puyallup, which is involved in some creative research and development of new technologies to address stormwater runoff in Puget Sound— the number one pollutant of the waterway. Of course, there’ s one week of the year that Ana Mari and I will never see eye-to-eye. There’ s that small matter of the Apple Cup around Thanksgiving... Believe me, crimson will be the state’ s color of choice for the foreseeable future.
Education: Graduated from Virginia Tech in 1986 with a Bachelor of Science degree in chemical engineering and earned his Ph. D. in chemical engineering at Virginia Tech in 1991.
Career: After holding his first teaching position at the University of North Dakota from 1991-95, Schulz moved on to teach at Michigan Technological University from 1995-2001, then Mississippi State University from 2001-09 before becoming president of Kansas State University in 2009. He was appointed Washington State University president in spring 2016. winter 2017 25