PULLMAN, Wash. — Three faculty members at Washington State University (WSU) are calling for 'an immediate change' in leadership, claiming the stature of the school is in decline.
In a press release, Dr. Michael Griswold, Dr. Kerry Hipps and Dr. Jon Oatley cited several issues contributing to the school's fall in stature, including a declining ranking, poor strategic vision, deficient leadership of the athletics department, poor management of university resources, declining staff morale and administrative oversight by the WSU Board of Regents.
Those three professors also claim more than 200 staff members agree with their concerns.
"As highly concerned members of the WSU faculty, we believe this is a critical juncture for WSU and change is vital," the faculty members said in the release.
Faculty members said the university needs "a new administrative structure" that:
- Will implement effective strategies that bolster the academic and research excellence of WSU, along with its associated reputation and ranking
- Understands the key factors that influence enrollment and invests sufficiently in recruitment efforts to increase it
- Prioritizes investment in academic programs, increasing rather than incessantly decreasing the financial support provided
- Implements meticulous stewardship of university resources to make optimal use of them
"We've tried to make it very straightforward and very quantitative so that it's not a matter of emotional feelings, but rather, you know, it's just the facts," Hipps told KREM 2 Wednesday night.
Hipps said he and other faculty members have expressed their concerns to the university in the past. But, the report was needed because the university isn't doing enough.
"We're going backwards," Hipps said. "It's not progress. We're getting worse."
WSU Vice President for Marketing and Communications Phil Weiler says these concerns from faculty are nothing new. He issued the following response to KREM 2 Wednesday night:
"The issues raised by this small group of faculty in their current news release are essentially the same as the concerns they raised last year. The challenges WSU is dealing with are issues that colleges and universities are facing across the country. These are not new problems and WSU has been taking concrete steps to address them for the last several years."
You can read the full complaint from the WSU faculty members here.
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