A question was raised to CFR late this week about why the cut to our campus amounted to 9.8% when the state cut to WSU was only a little over 1%. One clue, as one CFR member suggests, may lie in the comments made at the recent Board of Regents meeting. As the CFR member wrote:

On this topic: If folks are interested and have an hour to spare, you might want to check out the 6.6.23 Board of Regents meeting (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LwMHNMBx4QA) from the 2:50-3:40 minutes range.

In this meeting, Brunelli discusses the budget with some input from both the President (on a strategic pillars framework) and the Provost (on cut histories and the return to merit raises for faculty).  In particular, at around the 3:20 minute, the Provost comments on what he suggests is a pattern of historic cuts that have hit Pullman more so than branch campuses (he calls out TC and Vanco specifically with a history of 0-2% cuts). What is not included here is the historical context of these cuts—at least from the Vancouver context/perspective, from what I remember.

In any case, the argument established here, which we can see raised/explored, too, in the 5.26.25 Board of Regents meeting, is that we have not been paying our fair share percentage-wise.

As such, I suspect these observations are a primary rationale behind the TC and Vanco percentage cuts. I think we can definitely expect a higher “franchise fee” rate down the road, too—unless we end up with an entirely different budget model based on what the President has described as a “purposeful realignment of WSU’s financial model” that will be worked out over the next year from what I gather from this video (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzIUusBigj8) and our discussion last week with Interim Chancellor Haynes.

Interim Chancellor Sandra Haynes responded to my questions this week concerning the process for the forthcoming budget cuts on our campus. She told me that she plans to send out a letter about the plan, possibly today, but said that I could post comments she made in our email exchange in the CFR Blog. Please, read on . . .

She reported the 5% cut––already part of the 1, 3, and 5% budget exercise that we did in the spring––would be taken for almost all units. To reach the target of  9.8%, however, additional cuts had to be taken, mostly from administrative units. She also said that the Budget Council––which, for those of you who are not familiar with this group, is comprised of the Chancellor, VCAA, and VC for Finance, Operations, and Enrollment––looked at spending patterns over the last three years and made changes to departmental budgets based on that data. The Budget Council also shifted costs from core to non-core budgets in the departments.

It is important to point out that she said that “the primary focus for additional cuts was on administrative units in order to reach the 9.8% cut.” I am not sure what this entails yet; perhaps her email message will address the outcome.

Haynes plans to submit the plan to the President on or before July 11^th with expectations for approval by August 7^th.

We learned today that the budget cut for the Vancouver campus will amount to 9.8%. That is about as close to the 0-10% without hitting it right on the nose (a left nostril, perhaps?). I had written earlier that it is not clear is how the President’s announcement from yesterday (that there are six units excluded from cuts) would play out on our campus with the 9.8% cut, particularly since one of the units, CAS, constitutes the largest college on our campus. That point was clarified by Interim Chancellor Sandra Haynes who responded to my question. As she wrote: WSU Vancouver is considered a unit.

This means that the entire campus will take the 9.8% cut. So, CAS, for example, is excluded in Pullman from the cuts since it is (in and of itself) a “unit” but not CAS on our own campus since our campus is a unit. As I mentioned to the Chancellor, this amount of a cut will result in dire consequences for our campus.

Following up on the merit pay announced yesterday, I am sharing the website, “Salary Increases for Faculty and Staff for your review.  https://newchapter.wsu.edu/2025/06/05/salary-increases-for-faculty-and-staff/.

You may also be interested in the website, entitled “A New Chapter,” where much of the information relating to the budget and other changes/updates are being hosted: https://newchapter.wsu.edu.

Faculty off-contract and hunkered down, getting as much research done as possible during this summer break, may come back to a very different campus this fall. Much of the changes discussed are expected to be implemented in the new fiscal year, which starts July 1, 2025.

 

This afternoon, following the Board of Regents meeting, President Cantwell sent out an email message to the WSU Community that contained information WSU Vancouver faculty need to be aware of.

First, she announced a budget cut of $17M in this coming fiscal year.  She has asked that departments across the System to “accommodate cuts 0-10%.” That said, six units are “excluded,” including the College of Arts & Sciences, Office of Research, the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine, the Libraries, and External Affairs and Government Relations and Public Safety.

The second piece of news is the creation of a “President’s Excellence Fund” that will “provide annual salary increases to faculty who have demonstrated exemplary work and made significant contributions to their field of study, their academic unit, and to the university.” I may be missing it, but I did not see a timeline listed for when faculty will receive these funds or the process by which faculty will be identified for receiving them. But it is good to see merit pay enacted.

Third, there will be a “voluntary retirement incentive.” Faculty interested gaining more information about the program can go to https://hrs.wsu.edu/voluntary-early-retirement-incentive/.

And finally, the VCLS, a name that never had a good ring to it and was often confused with the other buildings on our campus that also contained the words “classroom” and “building” in the title, will now be called Netzhammer Hall.

Reach out to me via email for more information about the meeting today with the Interim Chancellor or to talk about any of this news.