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.