Hello, and welcome to the second installment of Uniquely Washington.Here 
today, I find myself in the lobby of the Harborview Medical Center. And we're 
here to talk about what it really means "Being Public".

Certainly at the University of Washington, being public means so many different 
things to different people. Clearly it means providing higher education access, 
but it also means so much more! It means access to world-class libraries, art, 
music, drama, and sports, and the highest quality medical care to all the citizens 
of Washington. 

Uniquely Washington with Provost Phyllis Wise

Hello, I'm Phyllis Wise and I'm the Provost here at the University of Washington. 
And we are in this absolutely beautiful library, Suzzallo Library. 

Over the next several months, I hope to be able to talk with you on several 
different occasions about issues that we raised initially at the Town Meeting in 
the fall. And specifically, I'd really like to talk with you about the vision 
statement. Many of you know that an incredible number of people have been 
deeply involved over the last several months in writing a vision statement. A 
statement that is inspiring, that talks about who we aspire to be and who we are at 
the University of Washington. As it turns out, it really boils down to three simple, 
eloquent statements.

So the first sentence says, "The University of Washington educates a diverse 
student body to become responsible global citizens and future leaders through a 
challenging learning environment informed by cutting-edge scholarship".

The second sentence says, "Discovery is at the heart of our University". And I 
think it is really very appropriate that this is also in the heart of the vision 
statement.

The third sentence says, "We discover timely solutions to the world's most 
complex problems and enrich the lives of people throughout our community, the 
state of Washington, the nation, and the world". 

The very first statement in our vision statement talks about our students, and that 
is what differentiates an institution of higher education from any other institution. 
We are fortunate enough to attract an incredibly talented group of students from 
very different walks of (life) lives. We bring them here, we have a very short 
time to really teach them, learn from them, transform their lives and then send 
them back out into the world to be leaders in their communities, in the state, in 
the nation and the world.

Discovery is at the heart of the statement and it is truly at the heart of everything 
that we do. It is the heart of our university. We, as a large research university, 
know that we can take on the world's most complex problems and enrich the lives 
of our people in our community, in the state, and in the world. 

These statements are truly bold and strong. But in some senses, they could apply 
to almost any public research university. So we added on a set of core values, and 
also seven statements that we call "Uniquely Washington". 

So, how are we really different? How are we unique? And how are we 
distinctive? How can we, as members of this community, really make the vision 
statement come alive and be part of everything that we do here at work and at 
home?

Many of you have already shared your thoughts with us, and I hope that these 
short videos will allow us to share these thoughts with you. I also hope that it will 
inspire many of you to collaborate even more as you think about the vision 
statement and think about how it will influence the way we work here at the 
University of Washington.

It's pretty easy to imagine that discovery is what happens in our labs and our 
research centers every day. But it's really much more than that.

Discovery is the light bulb going off in a student's mind when a book or a lecture 
really begin to make sense.

Discovery is building, drawing, molding, creating things in novel ways.

Discovery is that moment when you know you're not living at home any more 
and you're ready to take on the world.

Discovery is working with a team of several departments in unique and non-
traditional ways to find solutions that will really streamline a billing process.

Discovery is creating a beautiful, functional display case to hold the world's 
largest printed book.

Discovery is meeting someone in person that you've only known through e-mail. 

Discovery is working with a team to find ways to recycle more, to reduce our 
power consumption, or to beautify our buildings and grounds.

Discovery is trying new technologies to teach, to share information, to 
communicate with clients, or to make the workspace more functional. 

If you have a story of your own discovery, go to washington.edu/discovery and 
post it on our message board. We'd really like to hear from you.

So you can see how discovery is at the heart of the university. How it influences 
every single interaction that we have. We really need to think big. We need to 
dream big. We need to imagine how discovery will influence every aspect of 
what we do here at the University of Washington. 

So, how will you bring discovery even more to your life? To the lives and 
interactions with your co-workers? To our students and to our community? 

So, over the next several months, I'll be coming out to the schools and colleges 
and departments to talk with you more about Uniquely Washington, to listen to 
your thoughts. Thank you very much.