President Mark Emmert announced yesterday at his annual address yesterday that the University of Washington is growing both physically and intellectually.

"We have received the best operating budget we have ever seen," Emmert said.

The UW is increasing its international focus with an office scheduled to open in Beijing, China.

"We are moving west to get to the East," he said. "We need to move to a point where we can do business as fluidly and easily in China as we can in Europe."

In addition to moving East, a new campus is scheduled to open north of Seattle to serve Skagit and Snohomish counties. Proposals for recommended locations are due to the Legislature by mid-November.

"This institution has outperformed what I expected," Emmert said.

Emmert said global health can and will become a centerpiece of interdisciplinary work.

"We have an incredible opportunity to make UW and Seattle the epicenter for global health worldwide," he said.

As the world comes within the UW's grasp, conservation efforts are on the forefront.

"We do amazingly well, but we need to do better," Emmert said. "I would love for the UW to be the first university to get it (a conservation plan) right."

Not only did the UW grow externally, there were significant developments inside the UW as well.

"The single most important thing is the recruitment of our faculty and staff," Emmert said. "Then we can provide our students with what they need."

The students entering the University continue to raise the bar for subsequent freshmen with a standard SAT score of more than 1200 this year.

"It was a really wonderful year in bringing people to the UW," he continued.

Husky Promise, which Emmert unveiled at his annual address last year, is now running. There are 5,500 students at the UW this year under the Husky Promise.

In February, The University of Washington Foundation met its goal of raising $2 billion dollars, a goal that was not supposed to be met until June 2008.

We did the only logical thing we could, Emmert said.

"We raised the goal to $2.5 billion by June 2008. ... We are already at $2.4 billion."

The student population continues to grow with the rest of the University as well.

In an effort to find housing for the additional 1,750 students that the UW received funding for, the Safeco Tower will now be UW Tower.

We hope to "relocate people in January of this year to free up more space on campus," Emmert said.

Continuing with the international focus of the UW, Emmert would like to continue to promote students going abroad.

The UW surpassed Wisconsin in the number of people going abroad with the Peace Corps last year.

"We now lead all universities to go abroad and serve in the Peace Corps," Emmert said.

Emmert sees no bounds for the continued growth of the UW.

"Our donors shoved a lot of chips on the table," he said, "all betting on purple and gold. ... Now we have to show them that was a good bet."

[Reach reporter Celia Hunko at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]