ASU’s university vice president on the Downtown campus and dean of the College of Public Programs has also been named chancellor for the University of Washington Tacoma.
Dean and University Vice President Debra Friedman will start at UWT July 1, pending approval from the University of Washington Board of Regents.
Friedman’s position at UWT will put her in charge of a small, urban campus — similar to her current role at ASU’s Downtown campus.
Friedman’s attitude toward running an urban campus is based on a connection between the university and city.
“This campus was built in a partnership with the City of Phoenix, so I wanted to make the city proud of its campus and help community leaders (and) students understand that we are growing (and) learning together,” Friedman said, adding that there should be “no walls between the university and the city — integration, collaboration, partnership around improving our city.”
It is this city partnership that Friedman says is visible in her next campus.
“UWT … was created by the people of the city of Tacoma,” she said. “That’s a beautiful origin about (ASU’s Downtown campus) and I look forward to it there as well. They want UWT to succeed just as Phoenix wants (the Downtown campus) to succeed.”
She described Tacoma as being in “a lot of trouble as a city,” and has been “hit very hard by economic changes,” but says the university is just as ready for success “as any other university in the country.”
Friedman described the Downtown campus’s environment as one that “honors the fact that all the students on this campus are dedicated to public service.”
“Students have really come to embrace the campus, what it stands for, they are among like minded students who want to change the world,” she said. “That’s a beautiful thing that this is the community we have.”
Students who know Friedman emphasized the impact she has had on this campus. ASASUD President-elect Joseph Grossman, whom Friedman mentors through the ASU Obama Scholars Success program, described the situation as “bittersweet.”
“I know she has made a huge impact on everyone around this school, including myself,” Grossman said. “But we all see it’s an excellent opportunity and we are very, very proud of her. She’s done a lot for this campus.”
This will not be Friedman’s first time at UW; she received her Ph.D. in sociology there before serving as the university’s associate dean of undergraduate education and associate provost for academic planning.
Friedman also taught at the universities of Arizona and Iowa before coming to ASU in 2005. In 2008, President Michael Crow named her vice president in addition to her position as dean.
Contact the reporter at caitlin.cruz@asu.edu
