Academic year 25-26 is well underway. It appears that the theme for this year may be “change and adaptation”. Under the leadership of our new president, WSU is reassessing its objectives as the state’s land grant institution and moving forward with renewed energy and focus to accomplish those objectives. President Cantwell has presented a set of strategic pillars that will guide our efforts moving forward. To help enact necessary changes, President Cantwell has formed a set of leadership committees including the University Leadership Council to inform strategic decision making, the Academic Strategy & Futures Thinking committee to discuss issues related to the future of higher education, the Governance & Policy Action Council address policy changes and governance issues, and a new WSU Directors Forum to provide key updates and discussion with leaders of units across the university. Another very important new committee is the Co-Design Council. It is comprised of system-wide leadership that will evaluate how WSU should be organizationally structured to best function as a system and accomplish its goals. The faculty senate has representation on each of these important committees and we will bring you updates via the faculty senate meetings and these blog posts. The president and provost have both committed to joining our faculty senate meetings whenever possible to bring firsthand updates and to answer questions from your faculty senators.
Several important faculty concerns have been submitted and posted on the faculty forum website. These include concerns regarding the unionization of postdoctoral fellows at WSU, the timing of 9 month faculty appointments relative to the start of classes and the associated issue of not having ample time to prepare course materials and websites, and a concern regarding the minimum length of faculty appointments. The faculty senate executive committee welcomes your concerns, and we will post responses to them as soon as possible. Some of your questions require follow-up with key stakeholders, taking some time to land on an accurate response, and some of your posted concerns result in changes to our faculty manual. So, don’t hesitate to submit your concerns, as they help us to serve you better.
If you are looking for opportunities to serve WSU, watch the Faculty Senate website for announcements of openings on our various Faculty Senate or University-wide committees.