As the University of Puget Sound’s 125th Anniversary festivities kick off, the City of Tacoma has joined in the fun. At the Tacoma City Council meeting on Tuesday, Feb. 19, Mayor Marilyn Strickland officially proclaimed March 17 “University of Puget Sound Day” in Tacoma, the same day on which the University was founded in 1888, one year before Washington became the 42nd state.
“They knew a great city needed a great university. Railroadmen and timbermen, nurses and pastors and politicians all contributed to that effort … This city over the last century and a quarter has become a great city, and we, thanks to you and the work of many who valued and supported us, have become a great university,” President Ronald R. Thomas said of the intertwined beginnings of Tacoma and the University.
The University of Puget Sound and the City of Tacoma share a long and harmonious history. The proclamation read by Mayor Strickland stated, “The University has evolved through a century and a quarter together with our City of Destiny to become a nationally recognized, independent liberal arts college, the only one of its kind in Western Washington.”
Indeed, the University and Tacoma have developed and progressed hand-in-hand, each mutually benefitting from the other. Puget Sound is recognized for service to and interaction with its surrounding community.
Before occupying our current campus in 1924, the University resided in five locations in Tacoma, including a large building at 6th and Sprague Ave. In fact, the purchase of the land on which our campus currently sits was funded by the citizens of Tacoma themselves, through a one million dollar-for-dollar program backed by the Methodist Church.
With 24 percent of Puget Sound’s student population hailing from Washington State, according to the school’s website, it is no surprise that there are currently 7,000 alumni residing in Tacoma and Pierce County.
The official proclamation goes on to cite Puget Sound’s faculty, who “have earned seven Washington State Professor of the Year awards, including the first ever awarded and the most recent.” The University holds the highest number of such awards in the state. Furthermore, the city recognized Puget Sound’s high output of Fulbright Scholars and Peace Corps Volunteers.
The provisions of the proclamation concluded with the statement that “The vitality of the city and that of the college are deeply intertwined through generations of collaboration in the arts, science, business, education, and community justice to make Tacoma one of the great places to live, work, and learn.”