WSUV Leadership Addresses the Campus Morale and Future at Recent Townhall

In a Town Hall held on August 24, Dr. Sandra Haynes, Executive Vice President for WSU Statewide Campuses, opened by citing changes in higher education, the political landscape as well as state and federal budget reductions, while addressing the challenges and hardships at WSUV in the last year.

She said that while some of the changes made were forced onto the institution by circumstances out of their control, these changes will “ultimately position WSU Vancouver for long-term success”. She noted that, while that is the ultimate goal of these changes, it does not erase the uncertainty many feel about the departures of staff members.

Broadly, the Town Hall discussed budget cuts, leadership changes, and other future plans for WSUV. The Town Hall finished with a question and answer portion with Dr. Haynes alongside Christine V. Portfors–Associate Vice President and Vice Provost for Academic and Student Affairs, and Damien Sinnott–Senior Associate Vice President for Finance and Operations.

When addressing the choices of the recent budget cuts, Dr. Haynes said that these difficult decisions came about when working to close the budget deficit.

“We closed a 6.2 million budget gap. This is the largest budget cut in this campus’s history, and we did so without eliminating a single academic program. That was a deliberate choice because when times are hardest, protecting teaching, learning, and discovery matters most.”

In working through the budget challenges, she said campus leadership relied on the Academic Program Portfolio Review to help guide their decisions. 

“But the real value of that work is not the report itself,” she said. “It’s the habit that it creates in making data-informed decisions.” 

Dr. Haynes said that, going forward, there will be a renewed focus on reviewing program performance, enrollment trends, and student success metrics, which she noted was a big concern for many last year.

Opening the floor to questions, Dr. Sandra Haynes, Christine V. Portfors, and Damien Sinnott addressed inquiries from attendees. 

One attendee asked how the new research initiatives would apply to social sciences and humanities majors. Dr. Haynes responded that she believes research is important to all disciplines, but noted that the social sciences and humanities are often harder to secure funding for. However, she said she was ‘very optimistic’ that the necessary funding will be secured.

“We’re going to have to think about how we continue to support research, because we all know the federal landscape has changed dramatically.” Portfors added. “WSU overall is down in grant rewards … And many of you are already doing some of the things you should be doing, looking at foundations, you know, just really trying to increase the breadth of where you can look for support.”

One staff member in the audience said they appreciated that Dr. Haynes had acknowledged the hardship facing many–former and current–staff and faculty members.

“It was incredibly devastating for our campus, and my unit as well, and a lot of my colleagues.”, they said. “I think that a lot of those emotions are remaining–of fear, of anxiousness, and also some lingering anger as well. … What is the hope for the leadership team in terms of morale on our campus, which feels quite rough right now, with the start of the fall semester?” 

In response, Dr. Haynes agreed that we cannot ‘gloss over’ what happened. “It will … still be difficult”, she said, “I’m not saying that now we’re moving forward and the trouble is over.” She noted that the most recent budget cut was the largest in the history of the campus, which impacted funding in a way it’d never been before, and encouraged participants to read the WSU Vancouver: A Campus in Transition document, published in July of this year.