University of Washington Tacoma - History

History

Following the establishment of The Evergreen State College in Olympia in 1967, interest in additional higher education opportunities in the South Sound continued to grow. In 1986, the Higher Education Coordination Board suggested branch campuses for both the University of Washington and Washington State University. Tacoma and Bothell were chosen as new UW campus sites, and three locations were selected for new WSU campuses: Vancouver, the Tri-Cities and Spokane. The initial goal of the new campuses was to provide further education for the growing numbers of community college transfer students, as well as "time bound, place bound" students with limited access to educational opportunities in programs with "demonstrated regional needs."

The University of Washington Tacoma campus opened its doors in 1990 in downtown Tacoma's historic Perkins Building. The 8 story structure was chosen in part for its capacity; during UW Tacoma's early years and construction of the permanent campus further south, enrollments comprised a maximum of approximately 401 juniors and seniors. During this time, downtown Tacoma's appearance and local reputation began to change. The decision to site the new UW campus in downtown Tacoma and not in an outlying area of the city is often cited as one of the most important factors in the downtown's revitalization. The somewhat unorthodox choice to renovate some of Tacoma's oldest remaining industrial structures for campus classrooms and offices, instead of razing the buildings and erecting new ones, has since been heralded for its foresight. A former cluster of blighted, decaying buildings was given new life, and soon after businesses began opening en masse in the immediate area for the first time in decades.

The current campus celebrated its long-awaited opening on May 29, 1997. Since the opening of the first building, several others have been renovated. The campus library formerly served as the Snoqualmie Falls Power Company's transformer house. Building names such as Mattress Factory and West Coast Grocery (the latter within the Academic Building) recall the structures' earlier uses. Transportation within the downtown area was improved with the addition of Sound Transit's 1.6 mile Tacoma Link light rail line in 2003.

Following several years of transfer-only undergraduate admissions, UW Tacoma admitted its first freshman class of approximately 150 students in Autumn of 2006. UW Tacoma expects to continue to increase enrollment and add additional buildings. In March 2011, the campus opened the renovated Russell T. Joy Building, the last of the formerly blighted warehouse buildings along the campus' Pacific Avenue boundary.

Tacoma School of the Arts Students also use UWT classroom space for their humanities classes. In return, the college uses their artistic resources for evening classes.