Happy 2022 to everyone and hope this year is off to a great start for you. The purpose of this is to offer some news from the Finance & Administration (F&A) division by reflecting on this past autumn quarter while providing some updates in the current winter quarter and beyond.

One of the things that I detected in my first quarter as a UWT employee was the seeming lack of awareness for business functions resident in the Finance & Administration division. Please visit the F&A websites to discover our services. Broadly, we support the campus by providing Finance, Budget and Procurement support, Campus Safety and Security, Human Resources for staff and student employees, and Integrated Facilities Management, which includes parking, mail and copy services.

A lot of our focus as a division during autumn quarter centered on preparing the campus for in-person arrival of students, faculty and staff. Our assessment is that, while it was by no means perfect, we worked hard across our division to provide a safe and secure campus to all and to deliver services across all of our functional business areas at a high level. I’m sure like many of you, human interaction and the life brought on by campus activity was a welcome sight and enjoyable experience.

Leaning into winter quarter F&A, like everyone else, found itself responding to remote instruction options while maintaining campus operations. Given our experience, this transition has been fairly easy to make with a continued focus on service delivery and ensuring appropriate levels of support across F&A functional business areas while ensuring the health, safety and security of our campus.

As you may be aware, our campus saw a decline in enrollment. This decline impacts the entire campus, not any one specific area. That necessitates a review of all of the F&A business areas to ensure we are doing things right, doing the right things and are focused on closing gaps. Moving forward, you will see F&A looking at opportunities to ensure that our business areas are better nested with the UWT academic and strategic plans with the express intent to ensure those plans are sustainable over the long run.

We have near- and mid-term priorities that include the construction of a world class instructional facility, the Milgard Building, continuing to guide the campus through UW Finance Transformation (UWFT), and providing direct support to future student residential and dining initiatives.

On behalf of the entire F&A team, we wish you a Happy 2022. Please let us know what we can do to support you better.



Vann Smiley

Vice Chancellor for Finance & Administration