University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce came to the Spokane Public Radio studio this week.
“We’re here to celebrate 509 Day,” she said, referring both to eastern Washington’s area code and the date.
“This is really a tradition that started about six years ago by our alumni association and it really is about celebrating all the Huskies in our community. We like to think of ourselves because we are the university for Washington and, although some of our campuses, our main campuses, are located west of the mountains, we have alumni all over the state and we’re doing work all over the state,” she said.
In eastern Washington, much of that work is related to the health sciences. The UW School of Medicine sends 60 first- and second-year medical students to Spokane each year to study in the new Health Partnership Building it shares with Gonzaga University on the GU campus. It also has assigns eight students to Cheney each year as part of the School of Dentistry’s RIDE [Regional Initiatives in Dental Education] program.
“They love being here in Spokane. It’s really a community that has welcomed them with open arms,” she said. “They love their work with Gonzaga, the building. They’re together with Gonzaga students that are studying other health care fields like nursing and it’s a great, great place.”
We talked with Ana Mari Cauce about the relationship with Gonzaga and training health care students, UW’s future in Spokane and academic freedom in higher education.
