Forum Post
Dear Colleagues,
Recent posts on the Faculty Senate Forum have raised concerns about WSU and its leadership but are themselves flawed. Overall, the concerns are understandable, and more is needed from our leadership. However, as representatives of higher education, it is essential that we apply objectivity and critical thinking to these issues before drawing conclusions.
Regarding analysis of WSU’s enrollment issues in Countering Misinformation (2-28-2024), the authors adopt aggregate, estimated headcount enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center for the state of Washington (1), then subtract WSU’s enrollment. Not clearly stated, however, is that the result disproportionately represents the remaining university with the highest enrollment (e.g. the University of Washington), a serious omission. “Headcount” also fails to distinguish part- and full-time enrollment. Verified institution-specific data for 12-month full-time equivalent (FTE) enrollment (Appendix 1) is freely available up to the year 2022 (2). They show that WSU’s fall 2019-2022 FTE enrollment fell by -13.7%. Those for UW-Tacoma, Western, Eastern, Central and The Evergreen State College fell by -10.0, -10.1, -14.6, -21.8 and -26.3%. Thus, declines over this period are roughly similar at the WSU, UW-Tacoma, Western and Eastern Universities, and far worse at Central and Evergreen. Only UW-Seattle fully escaped an overall reduction.
Methods used to gauge faculty sentiments by authors of the recent “Time for a Change” letter are also concerning. The letter, and a link to a SurveyMonkey poll, were emailed to faculty. The email could have been forwarded to non-faculty, and multiple voting was feasible using multiple devices or multiple incognito browser windows (3). WSU enrollment declines mentioned are reasonably accurate but lacked context provided above and below. Ongoing efforts to address the issue were not acknowledged. Saichi Oba was hired as VP of Enrollment Management in 2020, and Andrew Brewick as Director of Admissions in 2021. Their initiatives included streamlining the application process through the adoption of the Common App program and expediting acceptance decisions. New enrollments rose 6.5% between 2022 and 2023 (5). Thus, the true number of valid “yes” votes is unclear. It is also not known how many such votes would have been obtained if more objective information had been provided and the intention to criticize WSU’s leadership in the media made more explicit.
Posts and emails from their authors reveal that some of these issues originate from a group of 18 faculty that has been in private discussions with the President and Board of Regents for over a year. These individuals are some of our most distinguished and accomplished faculty, and their opinions deserve recognition and respect. However, apart from the aforementioned poll, there is little evidence that a credible effort was made to involve other stakeholders during that time. It is unclear whether this group adequately represents ~ 1,800 faculty across 6 campuses. Holding private discussions for over a year is unacceptable for both faculty and leadership at a public university. The WSU Faculty Senate may be viewed by some as ineffective but is the appropriate venue for initiating these conversations and both WSU’s faculty and leadership should endeavor to strengthen its effectiveness, not circumvent it. These issues should have been brought forward long before now.
The above notwithstanding, the overarching concerns expressed by the “Time for a change”, “Countering misinformation” and several other communications on the Faculty Senate Forum website are widely shared and their basis is obvious. “Countering Misinformation” notes declining total enrollments on the Pullman campus between 2018 and 2023. In-state student enrollment on that campus has actually declined steadily since at least 2012 (4). New 2022-2023 undergraduate fall enrollment rose 2.8% in Vancouver and 5.8% in Pullman, but 17.9% in Spokane, 25.7% in Tri-cities and 31.8% in Everett. Global, now our second largest campus, saw a 14.1% increase last year, and Global’s undergraduate full time FTE rose 63.5% under the current administration (5).
Washington state’s population is aging and becoming more economically and culturally diverse (6,7,8). Older students have obligations that preclude traditional college residencies. Cultural and economic factors affect a student’s ability and willingness to relocate. Resources needed to conduct world-class research and educational efforts, including high performance computer clusters and vast repositories of data, are accessible from anywhere using a cheap laptop. Seen through this lens, the above enrollment changes are predictable, and the overarching goals of One WSU (9) appear forward looking. However, this is conjecture. Lack of understanding of One WSU and how it addresses WSU’s specific challenges are evident in posts to the Faculty Senate website. More details addressing this are needed, yet many communications from administration are vague.
As but one example, the president’s response to “Time for a Change” states that he “takes [these concerns] very seriously”, and “we have been working collaboratively with the Board of Regents, Faculty Senate, and our colleagues across the system to address them.” How? When and what results can be expected? Such statements are not sufficient to allow current and prospective WSU employees to make informed life decisions. WSU’s employees and students deserve the same transparency from WSU as that of any shareholder in any publicly held corporation, such as regular, complete, verifiable financial data and clear forward projections. The recent calls for budget data on the Senate Forum website (Budget Transparency, 2-27-24) highlight this.
The president’s efforts to promote external philanthropy and navigate the PAC12 debacle are commendable, but the sum of these efforts represent less than $160 million/year of revenue. WSU is a 1.2 billion dollar/year institution (10). Athletics and philanthropy should be secondary to discussions about our institution’s efforts and future, rather than dominating our narrative. The need to provide consistently positive public statements is understandable, but posts to the Faculty Senate website reveal a stark disconnect between the perception of WSU’s employees and the messages received from its leadership. Faculty representation on the president’s Athletic Program Budget and Athletic Program Oversight committees has been beneficial in addressing concerns. Faculty representation should now also extend to system-level budget review and planning efforts.
The focus of the question that WSU must address if it is to flourish is not the value of past national ranking but how best to serve the future needs of the State of Washington. Doing so will likely require substantial changes in both how and where we do so. Effective leadership through these changes will require transparency, compassion and the conviction needed to convince or ignore critics. Unlike the apparent opinion of the authors of recent posts, I do not believe our leadership is incapable of this. But it is time for change, albeit by all concerned.
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- https://nscresearchcenter.org/wp-content/uploads/CTEEFall2023-Appendix.xlsx
- https://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/datacenter/InstitutionByName.aspx?goToReportId=1&sid=dbc2f23a-fced-4490-be67-ca49efa4e1ff&rtid=1
- https://help.surveymonkey.com/en/surveymonkey/send/allowing-multiple-responses/
- https://ir.wsu.edu/total-student-enrollment/
- https://ir.wsu.edu/new-student-enrollment/
- https://www.kuow.org/stories/washington-state-population-tops-8-million-and-it-s-not-getting-any-younger
- https://www.cbpp.org/sites/default/files/atoms/files/Washington.pdf
- https://www.axios.com/local/seattle/2022/07/08/census-washington-less-white
- https://strategy.wsu.edu/strategic-plan/one-wsu/
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8B-nThMfaAs [2:32]
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Year | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 | % Change |
Central Washington University | 10710 | 10134 | 9227 | 8376 | -21.8 |
Eastern Washington University | 11413 | 11077 | 9851 | 9751 | -14.6 |
The Evergreen State College | 2661 | 2098 | 1923 | 1960 | -26.3 |
University of Washington-Bothell Campus | 5300 | 5641 | 5408 | 5121 | -3.4 |
University of Washington-Seattle Campus | 44088 | 44380 | 46514 | 46300 | +5.0 |
University of Washington-Tacoma Campus | 4856 | 4845 | 4565 | 4369 | -10.0 |
Washington State University | 28770 | 27983 | 26787 | 24841 | -13.7 |
Western Washington University | 15198 | 14109 | 14001 | 13658 | -10.1 |
Response
Please see the response below from Faculty Senate Chair, Eric Shelden:
Comment
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For those following this discussion, Stephanie Kane in the WSU Office of institutional research recently shared with the faculty senate links (below) to the most recent state institutions’ enrollment data in an easy to access format provided by the Washington State’s Education and Research Data Center, and to their most recent report.
Best wishes,
Eric Shelden
https://erdc.wa.gov/data-dashboards/public-four-year-dashboard#annual-enrollment
https://wsac.wa.gov/sites/default/files/Enrollment_Update_Fall_2023.pdf?utm_medium=email&utm_source=WSAC