HUBERT:
Good evening and welcome to Come Together Washington.

It is a great honor to welcome all of you my colleagues among the faculty, administration and staff of the University of Washington

The University Board of Regents
• Elected officials of the State of Washington – state legislators, congressmen, mayors, council members
• Students – present and future undergraduates and graduates.
   A special welcome also to the students on stage – national scholarship winners, diversity scholars, Mary Gates scholars,  graduate fellowship recipients.
• Alumni
• Business and civic leaders
• Honored guests from many countries throughout the world
• Fellow citizens

I first set foot in this community in the early 1970s to keynote a conference on lifelong learning. I remember arriving on an exquisite fall afternoon. I walked across this campus and thought to myself, “How could any group of faculty on this earth be so fortunate to work on such a magnificent campus?” I thought that it was the first and last time I’d see it.

Not so. I have been here now for 30 years. Like many of my colleagues, I have held many positions – professor, associate dean of arts and sciences, vice provost, Dean of the Evans School of Public Affairs. I have spent my career here, and at two other universities.

The hallmark of the University of Washington is the extent to which people work together across disciplinary boundaries to address complex and important challenges. And the extent to which they work outside the walls of the University itself. The contributions that faculty and students make to the well-being of this State are enormous – both as specialists and as individual citizens. I think that those of you who visited the faculty-student showcases on the concourse most likely got a very strong sense of this. (If you didn’t visit the showcases before the program, I urge you to do so afterwards.)

Like many of you – and with many of you I have had many community assignments: Chair of the King County Ethics Commission, the State Commission on Ethics, the State Sentencing Guidelines Commission, the State Committee on Judicial Conduct, and so on. It has been a privilege to serve my community as well as my university. The privilege to serve, and to make our society an ever more just and productive one, is the spirit that lies behind this celebration.

Collectively, we seek to ensure that the students of future generations have an opportunity to pursue their educational goals and dreams.

Collectively, we seek to ensure that the University continues to be a place where the open and honest exchange of ideas and search for new knowledge are stronger than ever.

Collectively, we seek to ensure that our State, our nation and our world are vibrant economically, dedicated to the health and well-being of the less fortunate, committed to sound environmental practices, ever stronger educationally, and alive culturally.

These things we must do together. It is both a local and a global matter, as so many things are these days.

This University has very strong local roots, but it also has a magnificent global reach. Students in the health sciences study and practice all over this region, and in places as far away as Thailand and Singapore. Faculty and students are to be found in Mexico – and throughout Washington State – working with local communities to design and build homes and community centers, playgrounds and healing gardens. I could go on.

But instead of telling you, I’m going to show you.

One of the remarkable feats of the University of Washington is to be found in its cutting-edge technology. What we are about to show you – we hope! – very few other places in the world know how to do. We are going to bring you over live high definition television streamed over the internet a group of faculty and students who are engaged in study and research with their counterparts from Chengdu University.

The University of Washington Worldwide program creates new models for sustainable international partnerships in education and research. University of Washington Worldwide faculty and students work in teams together with students and professors at partner universities to address common, pressing practical challenges facing both Washington State and the partner regions.

This collaborative research work is integrated into the curriculum, both at the University of Washington and at partner schools, starting with students as early as the freshman year. The University of Washington Worldwide curriculum includes joint research, language and cultural studies and a year-long reciprocal student exchange with the partner universities.

The two main University of Washington Worldwide partner universities in China are Sichuan University, in Chengdu and Tsinghua University in Beijing. Students and staff with University of Washington Worldwide are joining us live from Beijing, China. I’d like to introduce, Professor Gretchen Kalonji, Kyocera Professor of Materials Science and Director of University of Washington Worldwide.

GRETCHEN KALONJI:
Thank you Professor Locke, and good evening, Seattle.

We’ve gathered this morning at Tsinghua University, with a group of UW, Sichuan and Tsinghua students who will tell you something about the work they have been doing together.

RIZ REYES and VENUS WANG:
RIZ: Hi, my name is Riz Reyes and I am a student in the forestry group in the UW Worldwide program. I am here in China studying urban horticulture and exploring the rare plants of Sichuan Province. I’ve had the privilege of teaming up with some of the world’s most noted botanists both from here and the US, and of trekking up to elevations beyond 15,000 ft. I’m you like a kid in a candy store here in China. It’s truly a dream come true.

VENUS: And I am Venus Wang. I spent last year at UW as part of our exchange program, focusing on research related to Douglas fir growth. I also worked as an undergraduate TA for UW freshmen on a project having to do with denitrification of water using wetlands. I plan to come back to UW for my PhD and go on to a career as a professor back here in China.

BOB WANG and BRIAN WONG:
BOB: I’m Bob Wang, and I spent my junior year at UW working on materials for solid oxide fuel cells, a technology for more environmentally friendly energy conversion. I am now back at Sichuan University completing my senior year.

BRIAN: And I am Brian Wong, a UW sophomore just recently arrived in China for my year of research at Sichuan University. Through the program, I got to work on real, cutting edge research on thermoelectric materials during my freshman year at UW, and I’m now continuing my research with our partners at Sichuan University.

BOB: One of the exciting things about our program is that we get to work together for multiple years. When I was at UW, I worked as an undergraduate TA in the UW Worldwide freshman class in which Brian participated. Now we are together again in China. And next year, when Brian goes back to UW, he will be able to continue to work with the Chinese students he is working with now in Chengdu, who will then be in Seattle for their junior year. It really develops a family-like character to the program.

LAUREN BROWN, RAN RUI and PAN YANGYANG
LAUREN: Well, the human component really permeates everything we do, but some of us focus more explicitly on social issues. My name is Lauren Brown, and I am a dual major in Anthropology and Public Health. I am here in China studying health systems in a remote village in a Chinese minority region, specifically a Nuosu or Yi area in the Liangshan autonomous region. One of the fantastic aspects of the program is that it gives undergraduates a chance to do international fieldwork, which is really unusual for a US program in China. The program also provides us with language, research and teamwork skills to skills to prepare us for careers that build connections between the US and China, which is vitally important for the future.

RAN: And I am Ran Rui, a student from Tsinghua University. I worked last year on a recycling project. In our work, we created a comparative study of student attitudes, practices and perceptions of recycling in US, China and Japan.

PAN: And I am Pan Yangyang, I am currently a sophomore at Sichuan University. In my freshman year I also focused on the recycling project, working together with some of the UW students who were with us in China last year, and with a student team here at Tsinghua University and a team at Tohoku University in Japan. I will spend my junior year in Seattle, starting in fall 2005, and look forward to seeing many of you there!

HUBERT:
That’s great! We look forward to meeting you too! I’d like to turn to Professor Kalonji now to ask her about the future of the program.

GRETCHEN:
Thanks! We are very excited about the progress we’ve made in putting in place new models for international education and research. Right now, we are in the process of scaling up the program to include partner schools in other regions of the world, including Africa, the Americas, SE Asia and elsewhere, and are expanding to other project topics. The ultimate goal of the UW Worldwide program is that all students in all majors get the opportunity at least once in their undergraduate careers to participate in a deep, multinational interdisciplinary project.

HUBERT:
Local roots and global reach. That, too, is the story of our keynote speaker whom I now have the privilege to introduce.

I am confident that all here tonight are well aware of the historic role Bill Gates has played in founding and building Microsoft, as well as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Five years after the inception of the Foundation, he has given us a vivid sense of what visionary strategic focus and unprecedented philanthropy can do. Those who have worked closely with Bill Gates invariably remark on his insatiable appetite for information and knowledge, and his intrepid spirit in imagining how the world might be a better place.

His ties to the University of Washington are numerous and long standing. Our debt of gratitude to him and his wife, Melinda, is beyond measure. Their generosity has touched all parts of the University, from undergraduate education to global health.

It is my pleasure and honor to invite to the lectern our keynote speaker, Bill Gates III.

Continue to Keynote Address from Bill Gates III, Co-Founder of Microsoft Corporation and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation

HUBERT:
What an inspiring address you have given, Mr. Gates. It has been said before, but is worth repeating: Seattle is fortunate that you were born here, and the world is fortunate that you were born to a family of such remarkable generosity and philanthropic spirit. Many of us aspire to change the world, but you have done so.

This University has many treasures – its friends and supporters first among them.

But it has some hidden treasures, too – How many of you know that the University of Washington has a Center in Rome? For more than fifteen years, students – particularly those in art and architecture – but now also in history, sociology, and even astronomy – have had the remarkable opportunity to live and study in Rome.

Again we are relying on our network engineers -- the very first in the world to successfully stream video over the internet to work their wizardry. To realize how amazing it is, consider this: the average home DSL line can stream video at 0.25 megabits per second. This is coming in at 19.8 megabits per second.

Since the Rome Center's founding in 1986, more than one thousand University of Washington students have studied there. The Center occupies three floors of a building in the central plaza in Rome, whose foundations date from 55 BC. And now to Rome, where we meet Professors Trina Deines and Curt Labitzke, and their students.

TRINA DEINES:
Hello, Professor Locke, and everyone in Seattle. I'm Trina Deines, Professor in Architecture in Seattle, here now with a group of 31 Architecture students. We've been in Rome for two weeks of our ten-week stay, immersing the students in the study of the city, in which ancient and medieval buildings stand next to modern ones. For the hundreds of students who have studied here over the past 20 years, this has been an experience they most often describe as “life-changing”.

HUBERT:
That’s wonderful, what projects are the students focusing on this year?

CURT LABITZKE:
Hi Seattle! I'm Curt Labitzke, Professor in the Studio Art department in Seattle.

I’m joined by a student representative of the 25 students on this year’s Studio Art Program in Rome. Trina and I think the students can tell you best about their programs so far:

B.K. CHOI:
Buona sera. I am B.K. Choi, an undergraduate student in architecture. Right now I’m working in a team of 5 students, both graduate and undergraduate, on an urban design analysis project which takes us outside the ancient walls. Working in a team is really good practice for being an architect, and it’s great that our curriculum here is all geared to working in the city itself. It’s very different from working in a classroom!

MOLLY MACGREGOR:
Hi, I’m Molly MacGregor, an undergraduate in printmaking in the School of Art. We just got back from a field trip in which we saw so many pieces of art in real life that before I’d only seen in pictures. I got so inspired by the sculpture we saw that I’m looking forward to trying some new 3-D techniques along with my usual printmaking, painting and drawing.

LIZ BROWNING:
Hi everybody, I’m Liz Browning, graduate student in landscape architecture, one of 24 students studying here on our Italian Landscape Studies program. This program is a remarkable opportunity for me to work on-site with my thesis advisor, Professor Streatfield, and to see in real life old and new Landscape Architecture and urban open space which is the topic of my Master’s thesis. I think all of us students really value this chance to live and study in such a rich historical urban laboratory as the city of Rome.

HUBERT:
My understanding is that, since Rome never sleeps, neither do any of the students while they study there!

Someone else who probably doesn’t get enough sleep is the President of the University. I’ve known and admired his five predecessors. The impact of their leadership is everywhere in evidence tonight.

President Mark Emmert brings a vast range of experience and a national perspective to his post, having served universities in every region of this country. We are fortunate also because he brings a lifelong appreciation of the special nature of our region and this University. As many of you know, Mark Emmert was born and raised in Fife and graduated from the University of Washington in 1975.

Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 31st president of the University of Washington, Dr. Mark Emmert.

Continue to Community Address from Mark A. Emmert, UW President

HUBERT:
Thank you, President Emmert, for your stimulating remarks, and your dedication to this University.

In President Emmert’s first few months, he traveled the State of Washington, meeting with friends of the University of Washington and leaders throughout the State. This was deliberate: the University’s strength and well-being depend on the people of the State. Parents from all corners of the State entrust their sons and daughters to the University for their education. University of Washington alumni work and raise families and contribute to their communities throughout the State.

As you will now see for our third and last live remote segment, the ties of the University to communities throughout the State are strong, nowhere more so than in the Yakima Valley.

We join Robert Ozuna, Director of the UW-Yakima Valley Community Partnership, at a seminar on financial management with a group of local business owners and community leaders. Robert, tell us about the UW-Yakima Valley Community Partnership.

ROBERT OZUNA:
Faculty and students from the University of Washington and Heritage University have a wealth of expertise to offer to Washington’s communities and projects which address community needs offer opportunities for learning and research in real-world and diverse setting. Our office establishes a long-term presence for the University of Washington in the Yakima Valley and stimulates and supports this common work.

Our region is going through though fundamental long-term changes in its economy. Two years ago we initiated a project to strengthen business practices in partnership with him Business and Economic Development Program in the UW Business School. Dr. Kasi Ramanathan, Chair of the UW Accounting Department, is conducting the first of a series of business education seminars here in the Yakima Valley this evening.

PROFESSOR RAMANATHAN:
In my work in the Yakima Valley; I am struck by the talent and energy of the people in this region. Here is a place which ought to be connected with the rest of the state's economy in a way which preserves its natural strengths and beauty, but gives its citizens a better living standard. Their access to education and training has been limited. Our work through our BEDP enables business owners here to access the Business School ’s outstanding faculty in their own backyard.

Barbara Sherman, Owner of Paradisos Del Sol Winery has participated in many of the business training seminars.

BARBARA SHERMAN:
The University of Washington business seminars have played a key role in assisting me develop my own business plan and has helped me make a connection with other wineries in the Yakima Valley Rattlesnake Hills area. I also benefited from the UW course titled “Benchmarking Best Practices”. Thank You University of Washington!

PAM FABELA:
We are proud that the University of Washington has partnered with the Yakama Nation and has made these business seminars accessible to our people. The variety of seminar topics has assisted our people who are current business owners or who plan to open a business in the future. The Yakama Nation Cultural Center Museum has directly benefited from a hands-on approach to improve our marketing strategies. Thank You University of Washington!

JOSE MENDEZ:
As a Hispanic business owner, I am excited that the University of Washington has been able to provide these seminars in my native language of Spanish. I have a start-up business and the information that I have learned at these seminars has strengthened my business and my knowledge. I look forward to continuing to participate in future seminars. Thank You University of Washington!

HUBERT:
Dr. Ramanathan, Why is it important that the University be involved in this work?

PROFESSOR RAMANATHAN:
Part of our mission at the business school and the university at large is to break out of our bricks and mortar boundaries and reach out to the whole state. We want to play a major role in making sure that the whole state benefits from the resources we have at the University of Washington and the business school

HUBERT:
Thank you.

One man among us – the man whom I have the honor to introduce now, Bill Gates Sr. – grew up in Bremerton, graduated from the University of Washington twice, once as an undergraduate, and then as a law student, built a law practice in this community, raised a family, and has done more to contribute to the University than any other single citizen.

Having worked with him on matters of community importance, I know him to be a citizen of the University of Washington, of the State, of the world, revered by family, friends, and colleagues here and everywhere. He is gracious, unassuming, and always the first to step forward when there is work to be done.

Bill Gates Sr.’s service to the University is unmatched. He is a Regent of the University of Washington. He is Chair of the Foundation Board. And he is also Chair of the University of Washington’s Campaign: Creating Futures. Please join me in a warm welcome and tribute to Bill Gates Sr.

Continue to Campaign UW: Creating Futures public announcement by WIlliam H. Gates, Chair, Campaign UW, and Finale.