By Alex Cook | Staff Reporter
WSU President Elizabeth Cantwell arrived in Vancouver as part of her whistle-stop tour this month, giving insight into her approach to the campus.
The VanCougar spoke with Cantwell and asked her about her thoughts on the Vancouver campus and her approach for planning for the future.
When asked about her vision, Cantwell started by disavowing the idea of feeding vision because she has only just started the job. She said she would have a better idea when she held listening sessions in the fall.
“Vision doesn’t come from the top, especially for universities, especially at this moment where much of the change that we are seeing is a permanent change,” she said.
She explained that for satellite campuses such as WSUV, while she does not need to pay attention to these factors, the campuses should focus on the community’s needs. These needs are both social and workforce needs, as well as the needs of the future.
Cantwell made clear that WSU Vancouver students should prepare for constant and significant change. The budget at both federal and state levels is tightening.
“So what I would tell our students is look for those opportunities to be part of the conversation about what we want to do and deliver at the Vancouver campus and what we don’t need to do because we will have to come to some agreement about what we don’t need to do.”
Some of these changes include new technologies such as AI.
“We’re not going to leave AI lying at the table, but I would argue we certainly haven’t really developed a strategy for that or really taken that on fully,“ she said.
Cantwell believes the future for DEI is complicated but that students should focus on the work rather than the language describing equity and diversity. Defining that work as “the availability of programs you need, and it is the delivery of graduates. I would personally add without absurd levels of debt.” or access. She discussed the possibility of losing the language around DEI but continuing specialized tutoring and scholarship work.
WSU Vancouver’s attendance has stagnated since COVID-19. Vice Chancellor for Finance and Operations Jenny Chambers-Taube stated that there was a 29% decline in funding, which comes to about 7 million dollars. Cantwell remains optimistic that more students should want to come to Vancouver and that work needs to be done to make it available and accessible to all students who wish to attend.
With the decision of who will be Vancouver’s new chancellor looming overhead, Cantwell explained her decision-making process.
“I’m looking for a true partner with me…They need to be part and parcel of the leadership of our change enterprise.,” she said. “…My top priority is a partner for me. But the second thing is someone who can bring the campus to the states of change that we need, some of which we know today and some of which we may not. There may be other things coming down the pathway. So someone who can articulate for our communities, for our students, for our faculty, for our staff and has the experience base.”
Cantwell made clear that the value of a satellite campus is the place.
“Because it’s my belief that the students who go to the remote campuses, by and large, are there because of the place, and they want to stay there or somewhere like that, for the most part.”
She sees this as part of the campus’s unique identity.
“This is the only urban campus that we have, and urban social needs are very different than rural social needs. So it’s the only campus from which we could put together social serving community programs that focus on urban communities.”