Some good news on the political front:

Steve Bollens, WSU Faculty Representative to the WA State Legislature, reports today that Governor Bob Ferguson signed the 2025-27 state budget. As the article in The Seattle Times reports, Ferguson signed in $9B in new taxes that will fund the budget over the next four years.

“The $78 billion two-year budget . . . raises state spending by more than 8%., or $6B over the current two-year budget, funding pay raises for most state workers and maintaining social and other services.”

You can read the article at https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/ferguson-signs-9-billion-in-new-taxes-to-fund-state-budget/.

CFR is hosting a lunch gathering for faculty to have the opportunity to meet and talk with the Interim Chancellor Sandra Haynes, on Thursday, June 5, 2025, from 12 noon to 1:00 p.m. The event will be held in the Faculty Office in VCLS 14. Food will be served, but please RSVP to dgrigar@wsu.edu if you plan to attend so that she can plan accordingly.

For those of us who have attended the many meetings held by the University or our Colleges and Departments over the spring and/or followed WA ST news, the Town Hall held on Thursday, May 15 reiterated much of what we have recently heard:

1. The cut to Higher Education in the state budget is currently listed as 1.8% (https://governmentrelations.wsu.edu/2025/04/28/legislature-reaches-operating-budget-agreement-adjourns/ ); that said, the budget is not yet signed by the Governor
2. The potential loss of F&A to the WSU System, if our current negotiated amount is lowered to 15%, amounts to $24M
3. Some grant awards have already been frozen ($21M) or terminated (28)

Some salient points, however, emerged from the presentation.

First, there are 42% newly elected legislators in our state. This means that a little less than half of our state legislators would potentially be new to the idea of F&A and its importance to the research mission of a Research 1 institution.

Second, despite the bad news we have been hearing about grant applications in the news, WSU is poised to end the fiscal year on June 30 over or at the same level as last year.

Third, loss in F&A revenue affects our campus and our students. Research Showcase, for example, which highlights the research and creative activities of our undergraduates and graduate students, is funded through these funds. Mini-grants students receive are, likewise, funded through F&A. This means that the hands-on learning that the public values in education depends, in part, on the money the university brings in with F&A.

Fourth, in response to questions about changes made to language in our public facing documents, Town Hall participants were reminded that WSU’s mission as the only land grant institution in the state is to ensure access and opportunity to all.

Anyone interested in talking further about the meeting is encouraged to reach out to me via WSU email.

 

 

On Thursday, May 15 at 11:00 a.m. members of WSU’s Federal Transition Team will hold a Town Hall for all WSU Vancouver faculty via Zoom. The email message containing the Zoom URL was sent out on Monday morning. If you missed that email message, contact Dene Grigar for the link. This meeting will not be recorded, so please try to join us so that you are informed about the changes to federal funding of Higher Education and specifically our university.

The spring election for 2025-2026 CFR and WSU Vancouver Faculty Senator Reps resulted in some new representation on both organizations. Their names are bold-faced, below. We are also glad to see those representatives returned for another term. Their leadership will be invaluable with the challenges facing the campus and system.

CFR Roster 2025-2026

• Susan He, Business
• Samantha Reisz, CAHNRS
• Laurie Drapela, CAS
• JoAnn LoSavio, CAS
• Alex Spradlin, CAS
• Alex Dimitrov, CAS
• Wendy Olson, Education
• Paul Bonamy, ENCS
• Robert Schimelpenig, Library
• Catherine Van Son, Nursing
• Dale Fortin, Science

Faculty Senate Roster

• Dene Grigar, TT
• Johanna Phelps, TT
• Steve Solovitz, TT
• Shiloh Green Soto, CT
• Gunjan Gakhar, CT

Over the summer months, CFR will post information impacting WSU Vancouver. You can stay informed by checking the site at your convenience or by receiving notifications when content is added by subscribing to our RSS feed.

For the best free RSS apps, we recommend:

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You are also welcome to contact us at dgrigar@wsu.edu.