The City of Tacoma proclaimed May 24, 2011, as Patricia Spakes Day, in honor of UW Tacoma’s chancellor, who will step down at the end of June. Chancellor Spakes took the helm of UW Tacoma in 2005, when students numbered 2,100 at the growing university. Since then, students have increased to about 3,300 and the university has changed from a two-year to a four-year university. During Spakes’s term the university completed a fundraising campaign bringing in more than $40 million, constructed the William Philip Assembly Hall, renovated the Joy Building and started work on the new Tioga Library Building. The city’s proclamation notes Spakes’s leadership of UW Tacoma “as a major economic, civic and cultural presence in Tacoma and our region,” and the “myriad partnerships between UW Tacoma and the City of Tacoma,” among other accomplishments. “Chancellor Patricia Spakes has been a wonderful role model, advocate and supporter of all things Tacoma, sharing her vision, insight and talents as a colleague and friend of the City Council and staff,” the proclamation states. Tacoma Mayor Marilyn Strickland signed the proclamation.