UW President Tours East Side

The University of Washington’s new president wants people outside Puget Sound to think of UW as their university, too.

In his second week on the job, President Richard McCormick made a three-day swing through Spokane, Wenatchee, Tri-Cities and Pullman.

“I got some very good advice, and that was to get out of Seattle as quickly as possible (after his arrival),” McCormick said during a meeting Thursday with the editorial board of The Spokesman-Review.

He said he’s on a listening tour, but is going out of his way to meet lawmakers who decide UW’s budget.

In the past decade, Washington’s colleges and universities have seen their share of the state budget decline as lawmakers put more money into prisons, social programs and basic education.The public has poured huge amounts of money into higher education, and McCormick said the university must listen to what the public wants out of that.

UW has suffered over the years from a reputation of promoting research over teaching. McCormick, a former vice chancellor at the University of North Carolina, said there should be a balance between teaching and the opportunity for faculty to become experts.

UW has some 800 students from Spokane and nearly 3,500 alumni here. The medical school offers three programs in the Spokane area and the applied physics department has a contract with the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute.

The Board of Regents spent $180,000 in its 13-month search to replace Dr. William Gerberding. McCormick will earn $195,000 this year, up from Gerberding’s salary of $175,000.

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Photo