UW president talks former pro-Palestinian encampments, move to Big Ten

SEATTLE — The University of Washington President Ana Mari Cauce will step down in 2025, but said it is not a retirement and was part of her original pledge to University Regents.

“It was preordained,"Cauce said in a wide-ranging interview with KOMO News. "I promised the regents when I began, that I plan to do two terms. I did, and this is the end of it."

In the interview, Cauce also discussed a tumultuous past couple of months and the move of Husky Athletics into the Big Ten conference.

The 68-year-old has been UW President since 2015, and a longtime professor on campus before that. Cauce said she will continue in the latter after taking a sabbatical, which may be objectively needed after so many key decisions were made in the last fiscal year.

Most recently, there was the decision to allow a pro-Palestinian encampment to grow in the middle of the UW Quad, despite university policies that ban camping. As time went on, multiple historic campus buildings were damaged and defaced by anti-Semitic vandalism. There were also a handful of physical skirmishes on campus and Jewish students and faculty complained that they felt unsafe walking through the public space.

Vocal UW Professor Cliff Mass even called it a moral, ethical, and legal failure by Cauce’s administration. When asked about that claim, she said “We will be doing some real reflection on that. I'm sure that I can't think of anything where you couldn't do some things better. But unethical, I don't think so.”

Cauce acknowledged that the decision to broker a deal, was in part, an attempt to have a peaceful commencement ceremony after other schools saw disruptions.

“Part of the decision to really try and end the encampment was that we wanted to be able to come to the end of the year, have our students be able to take their finals week, have their graduations in a more peaceful situation," Cauce said.

Cauce was asked if she felt anything was truly resolved regarding the issues.

“Certainly despite some people's views, the university doesn't have the capacity to end what's the horrific situation in the Middle East. No question. So, in that sense, nothing was resolved. It's not like any agreement that we make is what's going to have a major impact on what's happening in Gaza.”

Those protesters wanted Cauce and the university to sever ties with Boeing. It didn’t happen.

“I am not saying that we would never sever our relationship with anybody. But the idea that we would sever our relationship with Boeing, because it was selling arms to Israel, which is something that, quite frankly is decided on by the U.S. government," Cauce said.

As far as the Big Ten move is concerned, Cauce said she still believes it was the best path for financial stability and noted that the debt on the renovation of Husky Stadium was a factor.

“I'm very positive about being part of the Big 10 is that the Big 10 will be at the table, shaping the future of college sports,” she said.

However, a recent report by On Montlake said that the athletic department will be asking the upper campus and Regents for financial assistance to fill a revenue shortfall.

“We have been one of the very few universities that really have been very self-sufficient in terms of athletics,” she said, continues. “The biggest issue is the stadium debt, and the renovation of the stadium and that is the biggest driver during and then also our losses during COVID. What happened is that during COVID, we had losses, and we went through all our reserves to cover them. So now we're entering the situation without any reserves.”

Cauce said that one of the biggest issues of their debt is the stadium renovation and the losses the university took during the pandemic.

“A lot of things went into that decision. Clearly revenue was part of it. There's no question about that. But so was viewership, which was something that streaming versus, you know, having network coverage,” Cauce said.

Cauce also said she had reached out to WSU President Kirk Schulz since the Pac-12 fell apart. She said that she is in constant communication with him.

“It's interesting because when I started this position, the relationship between us and WSU was particularly bad because they abandoned our partnership in the medical school and decided to go their own way, which was very hurtful.”

She will shepherd the Huskies through that first Big Ten year and it may explain why she plans on taking some time off.

“I am going to take my sabbatical leave, do some writing, and then think about what's the best way for me to return for a while,” Cauce said. “The University of Washington is a wonderful university. It is already in a great position, but it has room to grow and to get even better."