The UW's Distinguished Staff Award (DSA) is the University's highest staff honor, recognizing employees who exemplify excellence in collaboration, innovation, impact, career achievement, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Winners of the DSA are announced in May.
The Yoshino cherry trees in the Quad draw thousands of people to campus every spring, but they are just one of the jewels that make up the campus tree canopy.
The University of Washington has about 570 species of trees on the Seattle campus, making it home to more varieties than just about any other American college or university, says UW Facilities gardener Theo Hoss. Hoss, who is also working on a master’s degree in natural resources at Oregon State University, has led tours of the UW’s campus trees for the last four years.
Theo Hoss poses with a Northern red oak on Denny Yard. Misty Shock Rule/University of Washington
His involvement with UW trees began when he was an undergraduate in 2020. He answered a listing from the UW School of Environmental and Forest Sciences to update the Brockman Memorial Tree Tour, created by forestry Professor Frank Brockman in 1980 to showcase 81 UW trees.
But many of the trees had been removed and the tour needed a refresh. So Hoss and fellow student Thuy Luu launched a new website, with entries to replace the out-of-date ones. Hoss then further expanded on Professor Brockman’s vision by leading monthly in-person tours, publicizing them on social media and installing informational tags with QR codes on the trees.
The UW’s care and stewardship of its trees earned it recognition from the Arbor Foundation as a Tree Campus USA in 2024 for the 14th time.
As an expert on UW trees, Hoss shared some other trees that you might want to check out when visiting campus this spring.
On a cold night in November, UW student Tariq Baerzae and two friends stand outside the Intramural Activities Building (IMA). They are waiting for NightRide, UW’s night shuttle servicing main campus and nearby neighborhoods.
“I’m tired because we just hit the gym,” he said. They’re on their way to the Ave to get some dinner, and the IMA is up a hill and across campus. “Don’t want to walk all the way back. It’s dark and it’s easy to get on.”
Employees from more than 20 different groups and shops within UW Facilities worked together for several months to support the UW School of Dentistry as it sought reaccreditation from the Commission on Dental Accreditation. This lengthy process, required for the University to continue licensing dentists, takes place every seven years and culminates in a detailed on-site review.
In her capstone presentation for Stepping Stones for Success, Kimberly Honniball, a parking operations specialist with UW Facilities (UWF), summed up participation in the leadership program: “Everybody here is trying to change.”
The nine-month class for nonsupervisory staff consists of weekly sessions on leadership skills, lectures from departmental experts, job shadowing, a capstone project and more.
UW Facilities’ Salvage Wood Program gives campus trees a second life. When trees need to be cut down — due to construction, natural death, disease or other reasons — Facilities staff save the trees from the compost pile and transform them into usable wood for construction or woodworking.
Now those trees are getting another life — as educational material. Together with the College of Built Environments (CBE), UW Facilities (UWF) is building a pipeline to supply salvage wood for furniture-making classes and to other CBE students.
October 2 is National Custodian Day, a day to recognize these essential members of the community who work every day to keep our buildings clean, comfortable and healthy. UW Facilities custodians are on campus 24 hours a day, with many of them beginning their day before 5 a.m. Outside of work, they are mothers, fathers and important members of their communities, with rich life stories.
Francis Garcia, a custodian at the Hans Rosling Center for Population Health, began working at the UW 10 years ago, shortly after he immigrated to the United States. In the Phillippines, he was a videographer for a cable company, working in studio as well as capturing proceedings in the Filipino Congress and covering protests and rallies.
In this photo essay, Garcia shares a behind-the-scenes look at the work of UW custodians as they go about their day. Garcia captured his colleagues' work on September 20.
Transitions can be hard. When I first moved to Washington, I went from living in a house in my hometown to sleeping in a powerboat that leaked from the roof above the sleeping area. As I lay awake listening to drops of water plopping on my pillow, I had plenty of time to think about the choices that led me and my new girlfriend, now wife, to this strange new place.
When new Sound Transit light rail stations open this month, it will be a win for mobility around the region. It will also mean an upgrade to the U-PASS, said Bill Bryant, assistant director of UW Transportation Services.
Starting Aug. 30, the Link light rail will go north to Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace and Shoreline. The UW community will be able to easily explore more of the region thanks to the unlimited rides the U-PASS provides.
Decarbonizing UW operations is a big job that involves rebuilding the campus energy infrastructure, and it will take nearly a decade to complete. But it just got a boost from an unexpected source.
Right now, the UW burns natural gas to create steam and heat campus, emitting greenhouse gases. The University is at the beginning of an effort to decarbonize its energy system, called the Energy Transformation Strategy.
Student employees are an important part of the UW Facilities (UWF) family, with more than 90 working in varied functions across the department. Hands-on learning opportunities include helping customers at the UW Surplus store, educating the UW community about recycling, creating 3D models of mechanical rooms, helping to decide how to fund sustainability projects on campus and more.
We asked a few of our graduating student employees and interns how their time at UW Facilities helped prepare them for life after college. All interviews have been edited for length and clarity.
Kye Lee, a UW custodian at the Physics/Astronomy Building, began his journey learning English almost 60 years ago, as a schoolboy in South Korea. Like many students who learn from textbooks, his reading comprehension skills were good, but he had trouble with speaking and pronunciation. By the time he moved to the United States, he was 50, a hard age to acquire a second language.
The UW's Distinguished Staff Award (DSA) is the University's highest staff honor, recognizing employees who exemplify excellence in collaboration, innovation, impact, career achievement, and diversity, equity and inclusion. Winners of the DSA are announced in May.
Today, the Yoshino cherry trees in the UW’s Quad are as iconic to the University as Suzzallo Library and Drumheller Fountain. But it’s been 60 years since they were transplanted from the Arboretum, and even legends aren’t immortal.
Late Friday afternoon before Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend, Jodene Davis returned to her office in Mary Gates Hall, where she works as a director in Undergraduate Academic Affairs. Her colleagues pointed to the ceiling in the hall of their ground-floor suite. Water was coming out of the tiles, making its way down the wall and out the bottom of a doorframe.
Don Satko has lived in the Puget Sound region all his life. He doesn’t remember there being many snowstorms growing up in the 1970s, but “now it seems like it's every year,” he said.
As a heavy equipment operator with UW Facilities, Satko sees the impact of snowier winters up close. He runs the snowplows, de-icer truck and other equipment used to keep the Seattle campus safe.
While more than 1,000 people work in UW Facilities, most employees interact with a much smaller set of colleagues in their day-to-day jobs. Mechanics work with other mechanics and custodians with other custodians in their individual areas or shops. Building cross-team awareness is one of the goals of Stepping Stones for Success, UWF’s longtime leadership program for front-line staff.
The challenge: Prepare the UW campus to host a live national TV show, manage hundreds of students lined up before dawn, and do it all on the busiest spot in campus. You have less than a week. Go.
Every September, UW sports fans return to campus decked out in Husky colors — but this year, they won’t be the only ones creating a purple haze on Montlake. The venues can turn purple too, thanks to new sports lighting.
On a Friday morning, a dozen people dance around a hallway in the Physics/Astronomy Auditorium. Chatter and laughter fill the air, but there’s no music. They aren’t dancing with each other, and their partners aren’t people.
According to the most recent survey, 13% of the UW community is driving to campus alone, a record low. The numbers reflect the continued impact of remote work as well as support for mass transit despite post-pandemic declines.
At home, there are simple steps you can take to save energy: program your thermostat, fix a leaky pipe, tell the kids to turn off the light when they leave the room, and so on. Smart home devices make doing this even easier, automatically increasing or decreasing energy usage to match your activity.
At the UW, the same principles apply. But instead of one house, there are 170 buildings with a range of functions, from labs to residence halls. Instead of 2,000 square feet, there are 19 million. Instead of one thermostat controlling a few pieces of equipment or zones, at the UW, each building may have 100 zones.
Internships take education beyond book learning to hands-on learning. Students get to put a skill or knowledge into practice ahead of their career journey — experience especially valuable for the UW Facilities interns who are graduating this year.
This article was updated on May 8 after it was announced that UW Facilities' Mike Morris won the DSA award for career achievement.
The UW's Distinguished Staff Award (DSA) is the University's highest staff honor, recognizing employees who exemplify excellence in collaboration, innovation, impact, career achievement, and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Congratulations to Mike Morris, Program Support Supervisor 2 with Maintenance & Construction, who has earned the DSA in the career achievement category. He and the other awardees will be honored at the Awards of Excellence ceremony at Meany Hall on Thursday, June 8.
A lot has changed on the UW campus over the years. New buildings go up, old buildings get renovated and light rail tunnels down below. One thing remains constant: The cherry trees in the Quad bloom every March.
