“It’s been an extraordinary time. An extraordinary 30 years,” said WSU Vancouver’s Chancellor Mel Netzhammer at his campus welcome speech on Aug. 27. After greeting a room full of faculty, staff and student leaders, Netzhammer took a moment to commemorate WSU Vancouver’s 30 year anniversary, reflect on some of the accomplishments in the past year and touch on things to come.
(Sydnie Kobza/The VanCougar)
Titan VanCoug, a rare corpse flower, bloomed over the summer. According to Netzhammer, this brought about 20,000 spectators to WSU Vancouver to visit the flower over the course of a few days.
As of fall 2019, WSU Vancouver welcomed its first resident medical students to campus. According to the Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine’s website, WSU Vancouver will host junior and senior medical students, who will practice in the surrounding clinics of Vancouver.
Student leaders, as well as new faculty and staff were recognized and the nominees for Chancellor’s Award for Staff Excellence were announced. Nolan Yaws-Gonzalez, student resource center assistant manager, was named the 2018-19 recipient.
Recently appointed Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs and Enrollment Domanic Thomas spoke on changes occurring on campus and addressed enrollment and retention. “It really takes all of us,” Thomas said. “This is all of us bringing ourselves together to make and welcome and really bring students into this community.”
Vice Chancellor of Finance and Operations Lynn Valenter spoke about WSU Vancouver’s budget status. “We [WSU Vancouver] met the targeted core plan budget reduction,” she said. “We met them individually and collectively. The campus as a whole and individual colleges and departments have done well.”
Netzhammer said that the university is currently crafting a new strategic plan for the next five years, updating the academic plan by planning new majors and programs in conjunction with updating the enrollment plan.
Commenting on the future, Netzhammer said, “for the first time we [WSU Vancouver] will be doing a strategic plan separate from the Washington State University Pullman Strategic.” The “hope” for the future is that going forward, WSU Vancouver will be able to “carve out a unique identity.”
Krysten Stewart is a junior at WSU Vancouver pursuing an English degree.