As we now have a committee and a consultant dedicated to reviewing EP-29 and the the relationship between and among the campuses, I would like to state the following concern: it is naive, dysfunctional, and (in some cases) crazy-making to insist that academic-unit leadership reside in Pullman without any input from that leadership concerning the allocation of resources. I know of no model anywhere, public or private, academic or corporate, for which this principal works. Academic decisions *are* (as often as not) decisions about how to best allocate limited resources–both to promote academic vision and goals, and to assure that our students, faculty, and staff are treated as equally and fairly as possible. If that vision and those goals are shared across “one university, many campuses,” then so must the responsibility for resource allocation.

With a firm in the process of calculating solutions to our system and clarifying EP 29 it seems difficult to communicate to incoming candidates the state of affairs at WSU. Shouldn’t we solidify and clarify the reporting structure prior to the search for a provost? Wouldn’t it be best to be able to establish and test a new structure without a new provost?

There has been talk about what we need to do to attract good candidates and also how to conduct the search. These are really important given our circumstances. Beyond that, I’d like us to be talking about what we need to do at WSU to be ready for the next person to be successful. What change in structures and relationships need to be revised so the Provost can engage in productive decision making? What constituencies inside and outside of the university need to be engaged with such that our next Provost can arrive and actually move us forward?

For the second time in a row, an external provost search has ended with the selected provost stepping down to become a regular WSU faculty member within the first weeks of assuming the office. In the first case, under President Floyd, the person was paid his full provost salary for seven years after stepping down, because that was what was stipulated in his contract when he assumed the provost’s office. The question now that this has happened a second time is: is the latest provost to step down, Prof. Montoya, also going to be paid her full provost salary for the next seven years, or will she be paid a salary commensurate with her role as a full professor in the Carson College of Business?

The concern is that, if external provost candidates are routinely guaranteed their full provost salary even if they step down early, they have a significant incentive to step down early and earn a salary far higher than they would as a regular faculty member, as they can earn this high salary without the increased responsibilities of being provost.

Are there potential issues concerning WSU leasing space to Real Life in Daggy Hall, together with concomitant semi-permanent displays in and near Daggy?

This semester, when I try to check course enrollments for the Pullman campuses, 75% of the time, I am immediately directed to global campus offerings. Though I understand that students deserve the option, the automatic re-direct is killing face to face classes. Please make changes so students can see all options when they click on “wsu course schedule.”

Blackboard’s gradebook has become almost non-workable. Fall 2018 changes altered the way the gradebook looked, and has made it more difficult to see the student grades and more difficult to view the student grades online (for the faculty). This is a problem if you have 20-odd students, I cannot imagine what this is like for a faculty member who has hundreds of students.
This spring, I found an error in the gradebook (that I didn’t find when checking in Fall) that inflated a student’s grade by a half letter grade–not a real big deal, but it alerted me to be more aware of the glitch this spring. What I found this spring was that in addition to the design of the gradebook (which doesn’t take up the entire screen and is almost impossible to widen), Blackboard made a change to how grades are overridden (like if a student turns in a late assignment), which means that even if the faculty member regrades an item, BB keeps the new grade hidden. This resulted in several errors during the semester, that I was able to correct, and just now I almost failed a C student today (grades are due today).

We need an LMS system that is better designed.