Below is a letter that Sandra Haynes sent to all faculty at WSU Vancouver following the Faculty Assembly meeting on Friday, September 26, 2025.

Dear CFR,

I truly appreciate your dedication and engagement during these challenging times. WSU Vancouver is a very special place, and I am continually impressed by the resourcefulness, innovative teaching, and hard work demonstrated by our faculty and scholars. It is an honor to serve alongside each of you, and I am grateful for your commitment to our community.

Thank you for inviting me to speak with you last Friday. In moments of head-spinning change from many directions, your openness to dialogue and collaboration is invaluable. Spending time together to process, ask questions, and support one another, as we did last week, is essential as we move forward.

Three areas dominated our discussion. First, we addressed the work of the rpk Group. For those unfamiliar, rpk Group is our external consultant specializing in data-informed institutional improvement. They are currently compiling existing campus data into a format for comprehensive review across units. The results will help us optimize the student experience and ensure we have the resources to continue growing. As someone who deeply values continuous improvement and shared governance, I want to reiterate that rpk Group was selected for their emphasis on these principles. The data they provide will be a tool for our collective learning and campus growth, empowering all of us—faculty, staff, and administration—to work collaboratively to ensure a thriving, sustainable campus that best serves our students.

Moving from data review to financial planning, the second major area of discussion was the rationale behind the recent budget cuts. I recognize that a 10% reduction in core funding—higher than in previous years—and has been difficult to understand. As discussed, other WSU entities have implemented comparable reductions even though some that are not plainly obvious, as they address structural deficits. While these budget measures are challenging, they are necessary for the long-term health of the WSU system. Our ability to continue serving our region with the unique strengths and attributes of our campus is balanced with our shared responsibility to the broader system. I understand these changes can be unsettling, and I appreciate your resilience and adaptability. Together, we will navigate these changes with determination and unity.

Thirdly, we discussed our values, especially our commitment to WSU’s land-grant mission of access and opportunity for all. This foundational value remains central to who we are, even as we navigate compliance with federal statutes and regulations. The stakes are high across the nation, but our focus is still clear: ensuring compliance without compromising our core mission of student success for all.

Throughout my time on campus and at WSU, I have been inspired by the resilience, collaboration, and creativity you have demonstrated as faculty. Your commitment to student success and innovative approaches continues to drive our campus forward. Each of you plays a vital role in our progress, and your perspectives are essential in shaping our future. Change requires us to remain agile, adaptable, and as informed as possible, and I am confident that—together—we can meet any challenge that lies ahead.

As we move forward, please continue to share your thoughts or concerns. I will keep you informed throughout these transitions and invite you to participate in upcoming forums to continue this important dialogue. In the coming weeks, we will provide further details about next steps and opportunities for engagement, including meetings with the co-leaders of the project, Christine Portfors and Damien Sinnott, and the academic directors.

Together, we will continue to make WSU Vancouver a place of excellence and opportunity. Thank you again for your unwavering dedication and for all that you do.

With appreciation,

Sandra

From your CFR Chair, Dene Grigar:

On Friday, August 29, 2025, CFR held a half-day retreat. A copy of our agenda can be found here. I thought it would be useful to post some of the outcomes from the meeting relating to leadership and other news.

We elected Wendy Olson as our Vice-Chair. This means that Wendy will serve as CFR Chair in 2026-2028.

We also elected Paul Bonamie to the position of Recording Secretary. Paul did this work last year, and we appreciated the care he took with the minutes from each meeting.

I will be serving as the Tenure-Track Representative to the Faculty Senate Steering Committee this year and Shiloh Green Soto  will serve as the Career-Track Representative to Steering. For those of you new to Faculty Senate processes, the Steering Committee plans the agenda for the Faculty Senate meetings. In other words, nothing gets done in Senate without it being approved by Steering.

Laurie Drapela will serve as the faculty representative to the Chancellor’s Advisory Council, as she did last year so well.

Alex Spradlin and Joann LoSavio are serving on a CFR Ad Hoc Committee to research a strategy for WSU Vancouver to make food better available on campus.

Some of you may remember the Faculty-Student Mixer last fall that CFR co-hosted and co-sponsored with the ASWSUV. We will be hosting another one this fall on Friday, September 26 from 5:30-8:00 p.m. in the Firstenberg Student Commons. Make plans to join us.

I will be listing the Interim Chancellor’s time on our campus on the CFR Calendar so that we all can know when she is available in-person.

The Faculty Assembly meeting takes place on Friday, September 26 from 9:15-10:45 a.m. The Interim Chancellor will be present in-person at this meeting and will be taking questions.

VCAA Christine Portfors met with the College of Arts and Sciences Program Leaders on Monday, August 25, and reported that she had spoken with the rpk Group about some of the concerns posted on the CFR Blog that faculty had about the survey. She is meeting with the group on Tuesday, August 26, to talk further about the question of anonymity that faculty raised.

Stay tuned for updates.

Let me or your CFR Representative know if you have any comments or questions. I will continue to collect items that we all need to be aware of as we undertake this activity.

Our ByLaws require us to meet at least 13 times during the academic year. All meetings, except the first one, will be help as hybrid, both in the Faculty Office (VCLS 14) and online via Zoom from 9:15 to 10:45 a.m.

Friday, August 29, 2025: NO HYBRID. Half-Day retreat that includes lunch. Interim Chancellor Sandra Haynes has been invited to speak and answer questions from 9:30-10:00 a.m.

Friday, September 12, 2025: Mark Stephan, Institutional Research, 9:15-10:45 a.m.

Friday, September 26, 2025: Faculty Assembly

Friday, October 10, 2025:

Friday, October 24, 2025:

Friday, November 7, 2025:

Friday, November 28, 2025:

Friday, January 16, 2026

Friday, January 30, 2026

Friday, February 13, 2026: Faculty Assembly

Friday, February 27, 2026

Friday, March 13, 2026

Friday, March 27, 2026

Friday, April 10, 2026

Friday, April 24, 2026

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.

WSU Vancouver faculty are invited to meet and talk directly with the Interim Chancellor Sandra Haynes at a lunch hosted by CFR on June 5, from 12-1:00 p.m. in the Faculty Office in VCLS 14. Please RSVP to Dene Grigar at dgrigar@wsu.edu so that she can plan enough food for the event.