WSUV Budget Cuts Raise Questions From Legislators and Faculty About Transparency

For the 2027 fiscal year, WSU identified approximately $11.6 million in budget reductions across the WSU system. As a result, WSUV has had to reduce its budget by 15% as part of WSU’s effort to address financial pressures. WSU President Betsy Cantwell has said the budget cuts are driven by issues with state and federal funding, decreasing enrollment trends, increasing costs, and maintaining financial stability. 

This $6.2 million budget reduction at WSUV has prompted questions from Southwest Washington legislators and concerns from faculty over how the cuts were determined, how much input the campus community had, and what the implications of these reductions are.

In a letter to Cantwell on July 1st, 12 Southwest Washington legislators acknowledged WSU’s financial challenges but questioned why WSUV was expected to absorb such a large share of the reductions compared to other WSU campuses.

Cantwell responded to the legislators in a letter on July 2nd. She said that WSU has shifted away from “applying identical percentage reductions across all units.” Instead, WSU uses a targeted approach where factors including enrollment, instructional and operational costs, available funding, compensation obligations, and the financial sustainability of each campus are considered to determine where cuts must be made.

She also said that “our current budget realities developed over several years” as WSU has experienced “more than $63 million in cumulative annual reductions across the system over the past five years.”

Alair MacLean, a Professor of Sociology at WSUV, said that declining enrollment can justify budget reductions, but questioned the size of Vancouver’s share of the cuts. 

“It’s fine to cut budgets when enrollment’s down because that’s a big part of the budget,” MacLean said. “But Vancouver’s getting more than half of the budget cut. So, it’s just an unfair disproportionate cut that we’re getting.”

The legislators raised a similar concern in their letter, arguing that the proposed reductions did not appear proportionate to Vancouver’s circumstances.

Disputes over Enrollment

Enrollment has also become a point of disagreement between the legislators and WSU.

The legislators’ letter said enrollment at WSUV had increased by approximately 3% while enrollment at Pullman had declined by approximately 10%.

Cantwell disputed these numbers in her response. She wrote that Fall 2025 enrollment increased by 0.03% compared with the previous year, following five consecutive years of enrollment declines.

She also said enrollment changes alone do not determine a campus’s financial condition and that WSU considers several factors when making budget decisions. Following this statement, she listed again what factors are used to evaluate a campus’ financial condition.

Concerns about Involvement and Transparency

There are also differing perspectives on the involvement of faculty and other members of the campus and local community in the budget process.

In their letter, the legislators questioned how much opportunity Vancouver stakeholders had to influence decisions before reductions were finalized. They suggested that when these large budget decisions are being made, there should be “greater transparency, broader consultation, and meaningful engagement with the communities, students, faculty, staff, and elected representatives who will be directly affected.”

In her response, Cantwell said leadership from WSUV and subject-matter experts were actively involved in the discussions concerning the budget and that “campus perspectives were represented throughout the decision-making process.”

However, MacLean said, “As far as I know, no faculty had involvement in input. Nobody I know had any involvement in it.” 

MacLean said faculty learned the cuts were happening near the end of May, after the spring teaching period had ended. Afterwards, there were town halls and meetings with local leadership, but MacLean said she heard that these local leaders did not have input into the budget reductions either. 

“I think it was done very un-transparently,” said MacLean. “There is some talk that maybe that will be different in the future. But we’ll see.”

Early Impacts on Campus

Although WSU has said no programs are being cut at WSUV this year, MacLean said some effects of the personnel reductions are already becoming apparent.

She said the library no longer has enough staff to provide some Electronic Course-Reserve services that had previously been available for classes. 

The VanCougar later received confirmation from Former Director of the WSUV Library Sam Buechler (who was laid off in June but will remain at WSUV for the time being) that the library will no longer be providing Electronic Course-Reserve services.  

“The library has been reduced by two full-time faculty, two full-time staff, and three part-time adjunct faculty positions which has required us to assess our work and focus our efforts on our most impactful services,” Buechler said.

MacLean also had concerns about reductions in IT services. The professor teaches a course that connects Vancouver and Pullman and said the class relies on technological support to operate effectively. She expressed concern as to whether IT services will still be able to provide the same support as smoothly.

She said she expects that staff layoffs in the library and IT services are going to have significant impacts for students this year, along with the reduction in other support staff.

MacLean also said the reductions have affected faculty morale, describing a sense of unfairness and uncertainty about what the cuts could mean for WSUV. “We haven’t really been given good answers on that.”

“Morale is pretty low,” MacLean said, citing confusion over why WSUV is receiving such a large share of the reductions and concerns about whether the campus could face additional cuts in the future.

Cantwell said personnel costs make up approximately 88% of WSUV’s operating costs, making workforce reductions difficult to avoid while meeting the university’s $6.2 million budget target. 

She said the university has also pursued early retirements, left open positions unfilled, and continued streamlining administrative units to reduce impacts on employees. 

It has not yet been determined the final number of positions that will be eliminated, and Cantwell pointed out in her letter that “Unlike other campuses in the WSU system, this is the first time in recent years, WSU Vancouver has had to reduce faculty and personnel to meet these [budget] requirements.”

Moving Forward

In the future, MacLean said greater faculty involvement should be part of budget discussions.

“There needs to be a lot more involvement of faculty during the school year as these things are being built,” MacLean said. “Decisions are being made usually throughout the spring semester with anticipation for the budget cuts, and I would say faculty need to be involved in those conversations.”

In their letter, legislators emphasized the importance of WSUV’s campus and urged Cantwell to “consider the long-term consequences of these reductions and to work collaboratively with the community.”

Cantwell said she and Executive Vice President for Regional Campuses Sandra Haynes are committed to communicating with the legislators and the community as the university approaches the 2027 legislative session.