Forum Post
Dear Colleagues,
By now, you no doubt have heard much about a group of senior faculty who are highlighting the pervasive, systemic, and long standing concerns that plague the WSU System. In a series of forthcoming posts, we will systematically explain these concerns and address the responses provided by President Schulz and the Board of Regents. Unfortunately, to date these responses from the Board and the President have been inadequate and have contained significant factual errors that obfuscate reality. The arguments we provide for clarification in this series of posts will be based on objective, verifiable data with sources provided.
Here in Part I, we will specifically address WSU’s enrollment crisis. Since President Schulz arrived in 2016, WSU has experienced a system-wide 12% decline in undergraduate enrollment and 12.1% decline in total enrollment. These declines are more profound when benchmarked to peak undergraduate system enrollment (2018) and peak total system enrollment (2019) – a 16% and 16.2% decrease, respectively.
The administrative response to this concern has largely centered on the notion that the challenges we face as an academic institution “are not unique to WSU.” 
We argue that strong, visionary, and proactive leadership has mitigated enrollment woes elsewhere, but not at WSU. The figure below shows fall enrollment trends from 2019-2023 for WSU (red) and the other 4-year public institutions in Washington (blue), for undergraduate (left) and all students (right). WSU data comes directly from Institutional Research, whereas the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center was used to obtain data from the other public institutions in Washington because not all of them provide detailed, forward facing enrollment information. Note that WSU’s enrollment was subtracted from the other institutions, so the comparison is WSU vs. the aggregate of the University of Washington, The Evergreen State College, and Central, Western, and Eastern Washington universities. It is clear that enrollment concerns are far worse at WSU then at our in-state public university contemporaries, with the latest year showing a 3% and 3.8% decline in system-wide undergraduate and total enrollment, respectively, compared to a 5.3% and 5.6% increase in system-wide undergraduate and total enrollment at the other publics.
Using outward facing data from our 13 self-defined strategic plan peers, we also show that declines in undergraduate enrollment are generally worse at WSU than elsewhere. 
This figure illustrates year-to-year changes in undergraduate enrollment since fall 2017; note that the focus is undergraduate enrollment on the main campus for institutions with a multi-campus system. WSU Pullman experienced an average 2.3% reduction in undergraduate enrollment since 2017, with four consecutive years of declines positioning WSU well below the peer average of a 1% increase over this time period. Only Iowa State, with an average 2.7% reduction in undergraduate enrollment on the Ames campus, is below WSU. Yet, Iowa State had an uptick in undergraduate enrollment over 2022-2023, whereas WSU continued its decline. Although not considered a peer institution, our neighbor to the east, University of Idaho, experienced a greater than 3% increase in undergraduate enrollment on the Moscow campus from fall 2022 to 2023.
In their Media Statement dated 2.23.24 (PDF), the Board of Regents states: “In the past year, we’ve seen an increase in enrollment.” This is simply not true, as the above figures make vividly clear. It is true that first-time freshman enrollment increased in 2023 (4,249) compared with 2022 (3,991) and relatively small increases were evident in first-time graduate students (896 in 2022 to 992 in 2023) and professional students (227 in 2022 to 243 in 2023). However, it is unlikely these improvements will be sustained given the fall-to-spring retention rates and the historic low the Graduate Education Council recently warned us to anticipate for graduate student numbers this coming fall.
The issues outlined in the concerned faculty memo are highlighted by the President in his response to their initial memo dated March 9, 2023 (PDF). While we laud the attempt to address this crisis, we consider the actions to date largely ineffective and far short of what is expected from effective leadership.
It is not too late to address the many challenges WSU faces. But it is time for a change at WSU. ~Anonymous Faculty
Response
The Faculty Senate Executive Officers have been notified of this forum post and will respond back once more information becomes available.
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