Top 10 news stories of the year

by Alex Sundby

The Daily

1. McCormick accepts offer to preside over Rutgers

Oct. 25, 2002: Then-UW President Richard McCormick announced he would leave the University to serve as president of Rutgers University in New Jersey, ending his seven-year tenure at the UW. The announcement came less than a month after McCormick said he cut off talks with Rutgers about filling the school's top job. He said the more he thought about that decision "the less right it felt, in my head and in my heart." McCormick reportedly received a starting salary of $525,000 at Rutgers, which surpassed his $296,400 UW salary.

Nov. 5, 2002: The Board of Regents appointed then-Provost Lee Huntsman as the UW's interim president. Since beginning his term Nov. 16, Huntsman has been earning the same $296,400 salary as McCormick did. The regents also appointed David Thorud as acting provost. Thorud, dean emeritus for the College of Forest Resources, served as acting provost from 1994 to 1996 and retired in January of 2001.

1. Gates donates $70 million to UW

April 24, 2003: Through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the richest man in the world gave the UW its largest donation ever. Bill Gates gave the University $70 million to build a genome-sciences building and bring 14 preeminent genomics experts to the UW. Officials hope the increased research will create a number of spin-off companies around Puget Sound.

1. Billing investigation nets 2 guilty pleas

Oct. 28, 2002: A federal-court judge accepted a guilty plea from UW Dr. H. Richard Winn of obstructing justice in a federal investigation. The investigation focused on Winn billing federal programs for surgeries performed by residents, which is illegal. As part of a plea agreement, Winn left the UW Academic Medical Center and signed a separation agreement guaranteeing him between $950,000 and $3.7 million. Instead of going to prison, Winn is on probation for five years, has to complete 1,000 hours of free medical care for poor patients, and paid a $500,000 fine.

March 26, 2003: UW Dr. William Couser pleaded guilty to a felony charge of submitting a fraudulent health-care bill. In the plea agreement, Couser paid $100,000 in restitution to the government.

April 30, 2003: Federal prosecutors end the four-year-long billing investigation, ending the criminal investigation without charges filed against UW Physicians, the nonprofit billing group for UW doctors who practice medicine at UW medical facilities.

1. Alumnus lost in Columbia disaster

Feb. 1, 2003: UW alumnus Michael Anderson, 43, was one of seven astronauts killed when the space-shuttle Columbia disintegrated over Texas. A payload specialist, Anderson graduated from the UW in 1981 with a degree in physics and astronomy. He was survived by a wife and two daughters.

1. Student dies in Thanksgiving shooting

Nov. 28, 2002: A shooting in a Tacoma home Thanksgiving evening resulted in the deaths of 19-year-old UW student Kimberly Riley and 5-year-old Jeremy Bayinthabong. Riley, a liberal-arts student from Hawaii, died the day after the shooting after undergoing surgery. She was among a group of about a dozen of people celebrating the holiday. Police believe the home was chosen for a reason.

1. Basketball coach put on probation; Alumni Association president fined; Neuheisel investigated

Oct. 2, 2002: Athletic Director Barbara Hedges decided to suspend assistant basketball coach Cameron Dollar from all off-campus recruiting activities for the remainder of the academic year. Dollar admitted to committing several Pac-10 and NCAA recruiting violations during his stint as a recruiting coordinator. He also received a 30-day suspension without pay.

April 11, 2003: The state Executive Ethics Board fined UW Alumni Association President Gary Oertli $40,000 for ethics violations committed when he was president of Shoreline Community College in 1999. The fine, the largest ever assessed against an individual, was part of a settlement between Oertli and the board. Oertli said the choice to sign the settlement was "simple economics." If a hearing had been held, Oertli contends, he would have incurred legal fees substantially higher than the cost of the settlement.

June 4, 2003: Husky football coach Rick Neuheisel admitted to gambling on the NCAA basketball tournament the past two years. His participation is in direct violation of NCAA regulations and could warrant serious penalties, both from the NCAA and the University. An NCAA investigation is ongoing.

1. Students shut down floating bridge in anti-war protest

Feb. 18, 2003: A group of eight anti-war protesters, including four UW students, was arrested for blocking eastbound traffic on the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge. The group obstructed traffic by erecting a 20-foot tripod while marching and chanting "no blood for oil." One protester was hoisted in the tripod to delay police efforts to open the road. The protesters face charges of disorderly conduct. A trial date has not been scheduled.

1. Burt retires from basketball

Dec. 31, 2002: Senior Kayla Burt collapses and is clinically dead for two minutes. She is revived with CPR administered by her teammates while 911 was called. Doctors later disclosed that Burt had Long Q-T Syndrome, an irregular heartbeat. The condition forced Burt to retire from the women's basketball team.

1. Suzzallo reopens; Educational Outreach building burns down

Sept. 30, 2002: Suzzallo Library reopened after a two-year, $47 million renovation. In celebration of the reopening, the Husky Marching Band stormed the library and played music in its hallowed halls after a ribbon-cutting ceremony with student and administrative officials.

Dec. 19, 2002: An electrical problem in a fluorescent-light fixture caused an early morning fire gutting the Educational Outreach building near U. Village. The damage was estimated to cost $1 million. Two firefighters suffered minor injuries -- the only ones from the fire.

1. Telephone-registration system shuts down

Oct. 31, 2002: The registrar's office permanently shut down the University's Student Telephone Assisted Registration system, better known as STAR, citing a drastic reduction in student use since registration on MyUW was introduced in spring 2000. Associate Registrar Van Johnson estimated "maybe 5 percent" of students used the 14-year-old phone system, which replaced registering with Mark Sense forms and standing in lines in 1988. With 72 phone lines, maintaining the STAR system cost the UW $19,008 per year.