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I am writing to request evaluations of members of the senior administration on the Vancouver campus. It has been well over three years since faculty have been asked to undertake the 360 Degree Evaluation of any of our leadership. With the university having returned to regular operations following the pandemic, it is time to begin this process once again.

The recent Employee Engagement Survey sent to faculty does not suffice as a method of evaluating administration. Additionally, because the survey was distributed by members of the senior administration, some faculty and staff members chose not to participate in that survey for fear that it did not guarantee anonymity and that their responses could be tracked via their email addresses, resulting in retaliation for less than positive comments.

Thus, it is time to evaluate our administration. Faculty need to be able to voice their views about administrators’ performances and to do so on a regular reporting cycle once again.

Response

The Faculty Senate Executive Officers have been notified of this forum post and will respond back once more information becomes available. ~04.25.23

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Faculty member Anne Marie Guerrettaz provided the information below regarding au pairs:

If you are looking for (creative) solutions to the childcare shortage that affects many faculty, you might consider seeing how WSU can build some alliances with au pair agencies to recruit childcare from abroad. Au pair programs bring international childcare providers to local U.S. families.

As a new parent, I did some research into local childcare options myself over the past months. I was disappointed to learn that au pair services, which are an excellent childcare alternative to local daycares, are not available at all in Pullman. I found this odd since au pair childcare seems particularly well-suited to a college town like Pullman, for a number of reasons related to the various dynamics of it being a university town. Au pair childcare options in Pullman could help address the childcare shortage that Faculty Senate has been grappling with.

Apparently, these au pair agencies all currently lack a local liaison/counselor/representative. They would simply need someone to apply for this role, facilitating relations between the au pair agency and local families. Such a part time liaison position seems like a reasonably easy commitment. Also, these are paid positions.

It looks like anyone local can apply for these paid, part-time au pair liaison/representative/counselor positions.

It would be interesting to see if anyone in Faculty Senate or perhaps in WSU units that work on issues of child development and/or international matters might be willing to spread the word of these liaison opportunities. (For example: WSU’s International Programs, WSU’s Dept. of Human Development, WSU’s Intensive American Language Center, someone in WSU’s COE without a conflict of interest [which I may have as a potential future host family].

Having au pair services available in Pullman would not only help reduce the childcare shortage somewhat, but would also increase student enrollment at WSU; that is because many au pair caretakers are required by the U.S. Dept. of State to enroll in a local university.

I’m glad to explain more if you have questions and think this is something that Faculty Senate would like to support. Since I recently grappled with this issue myself, I wanted to share what I had learned about au pair agencies, in case it is helpful to you all.

Response

The Faculty Senate Executive Officers support this forum post consideration. ~04.25.23

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Faculty on the Vancouver campus have repeatedly asked for 360 degree evaluations of campus administrators (in particular, the VCAA office) through the Council for Faculty Representation (please see minutes throughout the year). The VCAA has stated that such an evaluation is not required and faculty should come directly to her with concerns. Faculty were also told that if they have concerns regarding other campus leaders (i.e. Associate Dean, CAS), to come directly to VCAA. On other occasions, faculty were told a review is unnecessary and faculty an option to provide feedback on the COACHE survey and recent Engagement Survey.

The COACHE survey results have not been released (after 15 months) and the Engagement Survey offered little opportunity for meaningful direct input on campus administration (in addition to being complicated because of the additional layer of administration on the Vancouver campus). Moreover, collecting data on one’s performance on an ad hoc basis (“come directly to me”) on such an important issue only empowers the loudest voices in the room. It also discourages junior faculty, those preparing to go up for promotion, or those fearing retribution (an actual concern voiced by multiple faculty) from speaking out.

I am asking the Faculty Senate to work with CFR and campus administrators to address this issue by requesting a full evaluation of campus administrators. To some it may not be “required” but it is incredibly necessary as the campus navigates the post-COVID era and struggles with a budget deficit.

Anonymous Faculty

Response

The Faculty Senate Executive Officers have been notified of this forum post and will respond back once more information becomes available. ~04.24.23

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For a communication from President Schulz about issues of concern to the university community, please see the faculty senate blog.

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We write to express our concerns about the stagnant research enterprise at WSU. While we have many things to be proud of, neither of us are content with our current rankings and overall, we feel that a re-imagining of WSU’s research enterprise and recognition that we are not progressing at a pace expected for R1 institutions is sorely needed.

First, we state the current status of our research enterprise using data from NSF’s Higher Education Research & Development (HERD) database. According to Vice President for Research Chris Keane (Faculty Senate presentation 2-16-23), WSU’s R&D expenditures per Tenure/Tenure-Track faculty are close to the highest in our peer set for the period FY2008-2022, and the total value of WSU’s research awards has steadily increased over FY2016-FY2022. While these data points are laudable, they do not tell the whole story. We calculated the average growth per year, and 10-year growth, for FY2012 – FY 2021 compared to three R1 (Colorado State University, Oregon State University, and University of Missouri, Columbia, all of which are considered peer institutions) and two R2 institutions (the University of Idaho and Utah State University, which was elevated to R1 status in 2022 due to significant increases in research expenditures), and found that WSU was at the bottom, with an average growth rate of 1% per year (range = 1-9%) and 10-year growth rate of 6% (range = 6-107%). This is due largely to significant growth in non-tenure track faculty with declines in tenure track faculty at WSU (127% increase and 4% decrease over 10-years, respectively). As a result, WSU’s research enterprise is growing at a slower rate than our peers. Indeed, a closer look at HERD data shows that WSU’s ranking has fallen from 76th in FY2020 to 78th in FY2021 among all institutions, and from 48th to 51st among all public universities over the same time. We can and should do better than 51st among public universities!

Next, we discuss our “reimagining” of WSU’s research enterprise. Now that the so called “Drive to 25” research initiative (D25) has been retired, the new goal included in the Strategic Plan is to increase total R&D by 5%. This target simply will not cut it – such a goal will not result in overall improvement compared to our peers when those institutions are also increasing total R&D efforts to stimulate growth and does not keep pace with the inflation of costs for doing research. Instead, we need a substantive investment in the research enterprise that is, to quote our late President Elson S. Floyd, “bold, audacious, and visionary.” While success of the D25 hinged on investments in the research enterprise that never materialized, and the initiative itself lacked clear goals (e.g., being among the 42 institutions who could claim “top 25” public research university status by CMUP metrics was nebulous at best), we envision a definitive target – to be among the top 25 public research universities in the nation, in ranked order, using HERD data.

As one example, we applaud the efforts at the University of Missouri, Columbia; MizzouForward! is an aggressive and strategic investment to achieve research excellence and student success. It aims to hire 150 faculty in multiple areas of research over the next 5 years. We anticipate that their research enterprise and rankings will improve dramatically (currently ranked 71 overall and 46 among publics), while ours will stagnate or decline unless similar bold actions are taken immediately.

How will we get there? The key to building the research enterprise is to invest in infrastructure – we must have adequate numbers of staff for pre- and post-award, contract negotiations, and to efficiently hire new research staff. Next, we need substantive investments in our research capacity – laboratories, “core” facilities, and the like. Finally, we must invest in recruiting and retaining top faculty. With this infrastructure in place, faculty will have a robust ecosystem in which to be successful.

The final piece is to get back to our land-grant mission – research that improves the lives of the individuals, families, and communities within the state. Emphasis on fundamental research that is basic and translationally relevant for improving societal well-being has waned at WSU over the last decade. We must do more to address this lapse and issues such as food insecurity, access to health care, and prevention of chronic diseases, and close gaps in health disparities that plague our state and nation alike. We believe that dramatic action is needed to get us back on track and are calling on the administration for strategic investment to achieve research excellence.

Submitted by,

Glen Duncan, Professor and Chair, Department of Nutrition and Exercise Physiology, Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine

Jon Oatley, Professor and Associate Dean for Research, School of Molecular Biosciences, College of Veterinary Medicine

Response

The Faculty Senate Executive Officers have been notified of this forum post and will respond back once more information becomes available. ~03.21.23

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Over the course of this semester, I have noticed a few trickles of students trying to use AI to do their work for them. It seems easy enough to spot at the moment because it reads like gibberish and isn’t about the reading assignment at all. I would like to know a few things. Firstly, what can we as faculty do to better prepare ourselves for this technology? Secondly, what is Canvas/Turnitin doing to help on this front? Thirdly, how will we handle this on the academic integrity front with WSU Center for Community Standards?

Ryan Booth
WSU History Department Faculty

Response

May 4, 2023 Update: Please see the response from Bill Davis, Interim Vice Provost and Karen Metzner, Assistant Dean of Students & Director of the Center for Community Standards. AI and Academic Integrity Response to Faculty Senate Concerns (PDF).

Regarding how faculty can prepare: WSU hosted a workshop on ChatGPT as one of its PIT Stops. You can watch the Transformational Change Initiative — Pit Stop recording here. There are also increasing resources online – a google search will produce sites with suggestions. See e.g.: https://teaching.pitt.edu/resources/chatgpt-resources-for-faculty/

Regarding academic integrity: Turnitin, ChatGPT and others are working on software to detect AI versus human produced writing, but at least as of now these produce errors in both directions and are probably not reliable enough. Most of what we’re reading recommends against banning ChatGPT, but instead thinking about how to use it as a tool. The resources above have some ideas about how to do this.

Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair

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On February 21, 2023, Von Walden, Glen Duncan, and I delivered a letter to President Schulz, Provost Chilton, and Board of Regents Chair Dickinson describing faculty concerns about the Athletics Budget Update presented as Information Item #1 to the Board of Regents last month. We allowed WSU faculty to view and sign the letter prior to delivery. The letter was co-signed by 261 WSU career-track and tenure-track faculty of all ranks and from all campuses and many extension offices. Given how widely these concerns are shared among WSU faculty, we decided to post a PDF of the letter as a constituent concern. Please read the linked letter if you haven’t already and feel free to add your own concerns and questions as a reply to this post.

The three of us vetted co-signer information to confirm WSU email addresses and to ensure that everyone was a WSU career-track or tenure-track faculty member. If you signed using the google form but do not appear on the list of co-signers, please note that merely means we could not find sufficient information on WSU departmental webpages to confirm your status as faculty. In the very rare cases in which we could not definitively conclude a contributor was a faculty member given the information available online, we erred on the side of caution, and we did not add that person’s name to the list. We apologize if we mistakenly left your name off the list.

Although over 260 WSU faculty signed the letter, we know from conversations over the last two weeks there are many more who are very interested in the administration’s responses to these concerns.

Luke Premo
Department of Anthropology Faculty

Response

Faculty Senate Executive Officers have been notified of this forum post and will respond back once more information becomes available. ~02.21.23

Update: President Schulz’s response can be found here. ~04.11.23

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How many Associate and Assistant VPs does WSU Pullman have now? Is there an updated organizational chart reflecting the most recent hires in 2022-2023 that can be shared with faculty that includes the names of the people holding these positions? Finally, how many of these positions have been created in the last three years?

Anonymous Faculty

Response

The faculty senate executive officers raised the issue of organizational charts with the WSU president and provost. They indicated that charts will be coming soon, stay tuned. ~04.03.23

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Good news for WSU – WSU Nets Top 100 Ranking Among U.S. Universities – WSU Insider 

Response

For insight into the research.com university ranking methodology, scroll down to the section on university rankings from this link. Note that research.com rankings include “leading scholars” rather than all faculty at a university.

Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair

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The cost of parking for faculty and staff is outrageous. For example, $850 for an orange permit or $600 for a green permit is outrageous. By comparison, across town at U of I, the most expensive parking permit is $395. That makes parking 115% more expensive when comparing our Orange permits to U of I Gold permits.

Anonymous Faculty

Response

We can’t speak to University of Idaho rates. Here in Pullman, parking must be financially self-supporting; it needs to charge enough to cover its expenses. Please see Doug Call’s March 30, 2022 blog post on the issue.

Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair

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To meet its mission and vision WSU must invest in its faculty. The College and University Professional Association for Human Resources has shown that there is a national failure for higher ed pay to keep pace with inflation. This comes as no surprise to those of us who are on the faculty at WSU.

The faculty salary equity process initiated in fall 2022 by Provost Elizabeth Chilton and the Provost’s Office was an excellent start to delving into the problems that WSU faculty face regarding compensation. Salary compression, differential pay for career track faculty, and a decades long lack of salary increases for inflation or for merit at WSU have meant that faculty can only receive raises if they have an offer in hand through a retention negotiation or at the two promotion events from assistant to associate professor and from associate to full professor. The failure of WSU to have pay increases that keep pace with inflation or adjustments for all faculty based on changing starting salaries for new assistant professors mean that the faculty salary equity process in fall 2022 was just a very small attempt to manage a much larger and more systemic problem.

What can WSU do? WSU needs to be the leader in this area by instituting a much-needed compensation structure and salary increase scale with steps within each faculty rank such as that found at other peer and aspirational institutions like the University of California system. For example, a faculty member within the UC system may receive an increase in salary as a result of a general scale increase, a merit increase, a promotion increase, or an off-scale increase. The general scale increase is actually a salary step system that requires faculty to be reviewed in a normal period of service at a salary step and receive and increase if they are reviewed favorably. This is a normal part of their faculty compensation structure. For the policy see – Salary Increases.

Regardless of the national situation, the Washington State economy continues to be healthy with the 2022 revenue forecast indicating short term gains. What is desperately needed is for WSU to strongly advocate for a competitive compensation structure for its faculty to remain competitive in higher education to meet its mission and vision to serve the citizens of the state of Washington. WSU must initiate system-wide policy changes with budgetary support from the Washington State legislature to invest in the faculty. Otherwise, salary inequity and loss of expertise and talent will continue to be an insidious and pervasive symptom of the compensation structure problem at WSU. Without salary support directed by the state legislature, other pressing University priorities such as campus needs, infrastructure needs and debt reduction will always compete with and take precedence over faculty and employee salaries.

Laura Lavine
Department of Entomology

Response

In March 2023, Faculty Senate voted to create an ad hoc committee to explore step salary structures. The committee will do its work fall 2023-spring 2024. We are currently (the first two weeks of April 2023) soliciting self-nominations for committee members. ~04.03.23

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I received the following message from one of my colleagues in CAHNRS. They wanted it to be shared with the Faculty Senate.

“I am becoming quite worried that the WSU administration is running the ship aground. The symptoms have been around for quite some time, and now behaviors and decisions of the administration are coming home to roost, e.g., 6% operating budget reductions, and it won’t stop there – enrollment declines are projected to continue to decline for two more years – as was reported to the Board of Regents, bottoming out, perhaps, at an aggregate 20% overall decrease in enrollment, with the inevitable continuing decline in revenue and budgets.

I have become deeply disappointed in the directions that WSU has taken, in multiple dimensions relating to institutional decisions, priorities, and efforts. Steeply declining enrollments (the worst in the Pac 12, as well as the ONLY one in the negative), declining national reputation, expansion of administration and the WSU “system” coupled with incessant budget cutting of academic units over time (the latest cut just announced), and the inversion of the priority of Deans and academic programs relative to support units and their VPs, are just the tip of the iceberg.

My point is this – is the Faculty Senate concerned about this string of negative developments? Are they concerned enough that they are forming an investigative committee to provide some accountability analysis vis-à-vis the administration’s decisions and actions? I respectfully suggest that wishful thinking that there will be serious accountability exercised by the Board of Regents is a ship that has already sailed … I don’t think so. To my mind, it is time to rededicate attention to shared governance at this institution, and pursue a much more active role of the university faculty.”

~Anonymous CAHNRS Faculty Member

Bidisha Mandal
School of Economic Sciences

Response

We are aware of widespread concern among faculty about these issues. We have been talking with President Schulz about increasing transparency and information flow to faculty regarding enrollment, finances, etc. We expect an initial communication from President Schulz to faculty very soon.

Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair

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I am concerned that the guidance we have received thus far from the institution regarding the ongoing WSU graduate student unionization process essentially prevents faculty and staff from showing any support/opinion on that process. I would like to see clarification, perhaps from an outside source, on what legal protections there are for faculty and staff to comment on and, if they choose to do so under their first amendment rights, voice support for the process.

Anonymous Faculty

Response

Because the issues are complex it is difficult for us to provide a reliable response. If you have a question, HRS recommends that you contact Kendra Hsieh, Director, Disability Services and Labor Relations Office, HRS.

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In December of 2022, The Learning Center closed in Pullman. This left many families scrambling for childcare and many have had to find an arrangement that is less than ideal (half day care etc.,). Infant care in the area is largely unavailable. WSU has a childcare center on the Pullman campus which is open to those who are affiliated with WSU and ideally, there would be space for those who would like to utilize it. However, the waitlist time ranges from 9-18 months thus you would need to put your name on the waitlist well before your child is born. With the 12 week parental leave policy, there is no place to watch your infant when you do have to go back to work (many parents on campus are dual income households or are single parents). There is an opportunity to better serve the WSU Pullman community by increasing capacity – either hiring more teachers, funding facility growth etc. I would be interested in having the University explore how they can better serve parents and make it so that they can stay in the workforce or continue in their studies.

Anonymous Faculty

Response

The faculty senate chair has dedicated the January 27th, 2023 Faculty Senate Blog to address this topic with the goal of identifying solutions in the future.

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The parental leave policy at WSU does not meet the needs of many 9-month faculty who teach. Specifically, leaves tend to be granted for 12 weeks (per federal FML policies), often starting the day a person has or adopts a child. Because leave is 12 weeks , so it’s been a challenge to work with 9-mont faculty who teach a 15 week semester. The challenge has been hard to navigate with HR and, largely, the “solution” to make it work falls on departments themselves. Having each department create a parental leave policy (or even different ones for faculty with different baby birth/adoption dates) is likely to lead to inequities across units. It’s a bad way to implement policy. I’d be interested in having the university investigate how to make leaves: (a) easier to navigate, (b) flexible, and (b) more transparent to all units.

–Anonymous Faculty Member

Response

Update 3/7/2023: AFW will be redoing the pamphlet that WSU used to have on family friendly policies and benefits. This should provide more clarity on parental leave policies and processes. Thank you to Laura Hill and AFW for making this happen.

HRS provided the information below regarding the details of parental leave. We are in conversation with the provost’s office about how to best support faculty through the parental leave process.

For WSU employees, there are Federal, State, and University leave resources possibly available to them, which can result in up to six months of eligible leave, following the birth or placement of a child. Under Federal law, if an individual qualifies for leave under the Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) the first twelve weeks, or 480 hours, for a 100% FTE employee, is approved under FMLA.

In accordance with University policy, eligible employees may also request up to twelve weeks of Parental Leave. This leave may be in addition to any leave for illness or temporary disability due to pregnancy and/or childbirth. BPPM 60.56. In utilizing these resources, an employee could potentially take up to six months of time off/leave due to the birth or placement of a child. For Parental Leave, as there is not a medical need for time off, the period of Parental Leave, and the frequency and duration approved, is based on the request the employee makes. 

For employees who are not eligible for FMLA, the University provides for up to four months of Disability Leave Due to Pregnancy or Childbirth. BPPM 60.56 For wage replacement purposes. Individuals may also apply for up to 90 days (full time)/522 hours(part-time intermittent for pregnancy-related medical condition sixteen weeks of Shared Leave for Parental Leave in accordance with RCW 41.04.665.

In addition to the above, the state’s Paid Family and Medical Leave (PFML) program, administered through the State of Washington Employment Security Department, provides a partial wage replacement up to twelve weeks for family leave, or up to eighteen weeks for family and medical leave, during a twelve-month rolling year. The Parents Guide provides additional information on PFML benefits for new parents. Additionally, what we often see is nine month faculty having more time off than is noted above.

Faculty members on nine-month appointments do not have FMLA entitlement or other time off/leave hours reduced during their cyclic break. They only need to “take time off” and their 480 hours of FMLA leave entitlement is only reduced when taking time off during their regular work period (August 16- May 15).

Example: If the event begins anytime during their cyclic break, the FMLA entitlement of 12 weeks (480 hours) does not begin until the first scheduled day back at work. Allowing for more than six months of time off/leave.

This information, and information regarding other Leave of Absence events, is available on the HRS Disability Services Pregnancy/Parental Related Leave website. We do understand it can be overwhelming to navigate the different resources available, and HRS Disability Services is available to answer any specific questions employees or departments have. HRS Disability Services hrs.disabilityservices@wsu.edu

Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair

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Hello,

I am chairing a search committee in my school. Applicants are required to upload 8 documents (such as, CV, job market paper, DEI statement, etc.). Screening begins Dec. 1st. We found out that applicants are having the following issues:

1. Inability to upload all documents.
2. Inability to view or edit their application if they log back in.

So far we have 75 applications. Given the time constraint, we sent out an email to all applicants to send us their materials directly and that we will upload them. This is a massive amount of work to be done in a few days. Additionally, we have to track every new applicant and ask them to send us their application materials. Workday has been extremely inefficient and reflects poorly on the university. We received an email from an applicant that they are withdrawing their application because of their experience with the Workday process. Is it possible to resolve these types of issues?

Thank you,

Bidisha Mandal
School of Economic Sciences

Response

Faculty Senate Executive Officers have contacted HRS. They are working to address these issues. ~12/13/22

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RE: Fair Labor Standard Act (FLSA) is requiring us to pay staff and, more importantly, postdocs overtime if they work more than 40 hrs in a week and earn less than a salary threshold that increases from 1.75x of the statewide minimum wage in 2022 ($52,743.60) and increases to 2.5x the statewide minimum wage in 2028 (estimated at $93,288.00). In addition, there are new rules coming for hourly workers that will require us paying them benefits after 1040 hrs worked (6 months at full time, one year at 50%). These changes are based on new legislation in Washington State. For full professors, this may have an impact on our productivity, which will likely also cause a reduction in productivity towards the land-grant mission. Despite this reduction in productivity, this will likely have less impact on our academic careers than it will on Assistant and Associate Professors. Junior faculty earn tenure and/or promotion based on Academic Productivity. This assessment is usually based on comparisons with other Tier 1 research universities (and often land-grant universities). Since these comparisons will ultimately be with universities in other states, many of which (for example Idaho) do not have the same FLSA rules, they put our junior faculty at a comparative disadvantage.

Though we realize that we as an institution may not be able to change WA State Labor laws (though we should try), this leaves WSU in a position of comparing junior faculty to other institutions that do not have the same costs to productivity. With this in mind, we would like to know what WSU intends to do with regard to these potential ‘apples to oranges’ comparisons of junior faculty productivity. These comparisons are not only institution to institution but are also likely to be historically based intra-institutional comparisons. Can we maintain our current productivity expectations, developed during a period of relatively low-cost labor, in a period of much higher labor costs, particularly for postdocs and hourly workers?

Michael Neff
Crop & Soil Sciences

Response

Faculty Senate Executive Officers have received this concern and will respond with more information as soon as they are able. ~11.18.22

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In 2022, there was confusion regarding announced and retracted changes to the 2022 summer semester start date, specifically that there would be a week of time between the end of spring finals week and start of summer classes. This change was announced, but apparently did not get Faculty Senate approval in time for the 2022 Summer semester, and was thus retracted.

Looking at the current 2023 Summer Academic Calendar, it seems that there is once again no gap between the end of Spring 2023 and the start of Summer 2023. Have plans for adding this week of much needed downtime (which allows for grade submission, syllabus updates, and prerequisite checking) been abandoned?

Ryan Learn
Mathematics & Statistics

Response

We did some investigation to find out the status of this proposal. Initially, Global instituted the schedule change, but then withdrew it as it required Senate approval. Global then collected data from faculty and staff regarding the proposed change. Advisors liked the proposed change and felt it was better for students; most faculty did not. In our follow-up conversations with the Vice Provost Bill Davis, it became clear that this issue is more complex than it appears on the surface. This seemingly minor changes has follow-on consequences and requires coordination with other timelines. Therefore, at least for now, the schedule is remaining as is.

Christine Horne
Faculty Senate Chair

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Has faculty senate thoroughly discussed what it means for Global to be a campus, particularly if it begins to hire for instruction? With the new budget model, there may be reason to be concerned about the investments units and colleges have made in Global courses and majors, and that enrollment moving forward would then instead go to the Global campus when other units/colleges had been investing in it (with the expectation that revenues would come). I suspect that current staffing models vary quite a bit, with different units using a range of tenure track faculty, career faculty, graduate students and adjuncts to teach on Global.

1. Do we know what that mix looks like across units and disciplines?
2. With that information, what then are the implications? And unless Global is going to staff ALL courses fairly immediately, what kind of constraints is a partial staffing model going to put on chairs/directors trying to coordinate staffing across the Pullman and Global campuses?
3. Would chairs/directors do assignments or would someone on the Global campus make assignments with their hires (and what would coordination look like)? With the full range of courses on both campuses, chairs and directors have more degrees of freedom to staff courses.
4. What is the impact on the research mission of the university? If staffing is career-track, most do not contribute to graduate education and research much if at all. Taking away teaching that departments are doing for Global that currently involves tenure track faculty or graduate students will continue to erode our FTE for research and scholarship.
5. Again, how much does this influence different departments/schools across campus. Do we know?

It seems important for there to be discussion, and there is likely a need for a white paper outlining the current budgeting of Global, what the new budget model will change, and how extensive the changes will be felt across colleges and departments/schools. I’m familiar with several departments that will be harmed extensively by Global hiring independently of Pullman. Are they the exceptions? It matters. And we should look before we leap.

Anonymous Faculty 

Response

Faculty Senate Officers are in conversation with Global. More information will follow. ~(12/13/2022)

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I read in the MP Daily News that you are discussing possibly requiring Covid-19 vaccinations for students. I strongly support this idea — but it must be made clear that students need to be current on those vaccinations. The bottom line is that the vaccines are moving into “flu vaccine” status — the formulation changes a bit each year. Thus, I think any vaccine requirement should make that clear: students need the most up-to-the minute version of the vaccine. Another vaccine that should also be required is the flu vaccine. While it is true that students are not likely to die from either Covid or flu — they can become quite ill, and illness disrupts the educational process greatly, especially when several students are out at one time. I could foresee an interesting study to examine the impact of a required Covid and flu sequence on attendance rates in classes. My hunch? Attendance will be far less disrupted than it has been in previous years. And don’t discount the impact of students transmitting diseases to faculty members. Protecting students adds a valuable layer of protection to faculty as well!

Elizabeth Siler
English Department

Response

Thank you for this input. We appreciate your interest in protecting health.

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