• Why Western at the Waterfront? There are any number of reasons. Growth is the most often cited reason: to allow us to carry some share of the load as the State expands higher education capacity. And, the project will help us there and that particular rationale will help us acquire public support for the project. Here, I add the thought that, in my experience, campuses do not grow by concentrating growth in one area or college. Not unless there is, already, extraordinary unmet demand for a particular program. Rather, the best predictor of how our students will be distributed among programs and areas 10 years from now is simply the way they are currently distributed. As we plan the Waterfront, this possibility (I think it a likelihood) needs to be kept in mind. However, the growth rationale is not important in the context of our vision of national eminence.
• We do not need to be bigger to be nationally eminent. But, there still are important connections between such a strategic objective and the Waterfront Development. Being an effective "steward of place" is one important reason: partnering with the coastal region we call home. We must continually stress the partnership aspect, a partnership driven not by our desire to serve ourselves but by that desire to serve our communities. Most important is to think even bigger than many of us have: to create a presence that is unmatched anywhere in the country in terms of the integrated research and learning occurring at the Waterfront. Further, in terms of acreage, we may be thinking too small. If our footprint is only 6 acres, that might see us through the next decade. But, universities exist for centuries; our choices today are constrained by decisions made at our university 100 years ago; our decisions today will affect the options available to those responsible for Western 100 years from now. And, sometimes, big ideas are actually easier to "sell" than are modest ideas.
• And, finally, because it is so obviously important, we will not be a recognized national leader if we, ten years from now, are as "white" as we are today: student-body, faculty, staff, top administration. The reasons, again, are obvious, but let me briefly restate them: it is the smart and self-interested thing to do. Our nation is increasingly enriched by communities of color; that is where the population growth is; a nation's wealth (economic, cultural, social) is best measured by the developed talent of its people; and so it follows that we must attract an increasingly diverse student body if we are to fulfill our mission of service to Washington, to the nation, to the world. Beyond self-interest, though, there is the undeniable truth that diversity at Western is important simply because it is the right thing to do. To that I add the observation that a key strategy in attracting such a student body is to have diverse faculty and staff. I am very proud of the progress we have made. Many, many universities are competing with us for success here and we are ahead of most. But, we must continue our leadership. And, our success.

Just a few thoughts after actively learning about Western for about 4 weeks. There is bound to be some I have wrong and much I have missed. I look forward to your continuing help: let me know what I have missed through email, at the meetings with each department, or through whatever means is most effective for you. You can e-mail comments to: President.Shepard@wwu.edu

Thanks for considering my thoughts. Thanks for having made Western Washington University the university we all, with great pride, call "ours."

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