- Chair Klein and Chair Elect Roberts visited the Everett campus November 14-15, 2024. While there we met with individual faculty, staff, and administrators. One key topic of conversation was the request by President Schultz to temporarily extend Academic Regulation 60 concerning student vaccination requirements to allow January registration without full compliance by non-Pullman campuses. This issue was brought to the Senate for discussion and subsequent vote on October 31 and November 14 as well as three Senate Steering Committees. The Senate directed an extension until January 31 with an MOU to be developed and signed by the Faculty Executive Committee in consultation with the Faculty Senate Steering Committee. The Everett campus expressed concern about both their lack of health facilities and services as well as lack of a student health fee which could assist student compliance.
- Chair Klein is engaged in ongoing meetings with Cougar Health and Risk Management to develop solutions to the lag in vaccine documentation and compliance. An EP 43 committee has ongoing implementation meetings with representation from all campuses confirmed.
- Chair Elect Roberts organized two workgroups to finalize the charges for the Faculty Compensation Committee and International Committee. We anticipate outreach to interested faculty soon via our website and Committee on Committees and hope that these committees serve in an advisory capacity for decision-making on faculty compensation and extension of WSU internationally.
- Immediate Past Chair Shelden has been actively engaged in the Presidential Search Committee as well as the Athletic Budget Committee. Both are topics of considerable interest to faculty as they assess the financial stability and sustainability of their positions at WSU. On December 17 the Faculty Senate Executives met with Ann McCoy to discuss upcoming developments in the athletic budget and communication with the faculty. We deeply appreciate her willingness to discuss faculty concerns and communication.
- On December 19 Chair Klein visited one of the WSU Extension offices in Long Beach, WA and met with faculty as well as toured their research facility. Building close relationships with our extension faculty is an important goal for the Faculty Senate and additional visits are planned.
- The Spokane faculty ratified their bylaws for a campus faculty organization in November of this year. There are now faculty organizations for Everett, Spokane, Vancouver and Tri-Cities which represent campus-based faculty issues.
- A speaker schedule for the Faculty Senate can be located at: https://facsen.wsu.edu/speaker-schedule-2024-2025/. We recently welcomed a legislative update from Glynda Becker-Fenter and have been receiving weekly updates from our Faculty Legislative representative Steve Bollens, who have continued to elevate faculty compensation to critical advocacy levels.