Budget Updates, Grand Challenges, and Student Success

Dear Colleagues,

It’s hard to believe that Thanksgiving is nearly upon us. The semester is flying by and will be over before we know it!

In October, I told you about the 5% budget reallocation process initiated by the Provost’s and President’s offices. The 5% cut is intended for reallocation to strategic priorities as well as to fund salary increases that were implemented last January but not funded by the state until July 1, 2015. In the Voiland College, that cut, which will be effective July 1, 2016, is being distributed equally across every unit in the college that receives “permanent” state funding for salaries and operations. In order to partially meet the 5% reduction, we are deferring several of our faculty and staff searches. However, we have approval and are going forward with a subset of our original hiring plans. (Each unit is responsible for determining how they will fully implement their portion of the 5% cut.)

In the spring of 2016, the university will release a call for proposals for reinvestment in support of the WSU Strategic Plan, specifically for themes one and two, which are the central emphases of the plan. They are: (1) a transformational student experience; and (2) a preeminent research portfolio. If you haven’t looked at it lately, I would encourage you to revisit the WSU Strategic Plan. Given the strong growth in research, enrollment, and impact by the VCEA in recent years, I feel confident that we will be able to compete successfully for reallocated funds and continue to grow our enrollments, increase the diversity of our student body, and advance our research programs.

The university intends to strategically reinvest some of the captured funds to emphasize and build out emerging areas of research excellence and current research strengths. WSU is looking for interdisciplinary collaborations that are also responsive to the needs of Washington State. The metrics WSU will use to indicate success include continued research expenditures growth, scholarly output expansion, further intellectual property development, and graduate student enrollment growth, particularly for doctoral students. The university will benchmark its research productivity against that of the Association of American Universities (AAU) member institutions, particularly those that are our peer institutions.

The Grand Challenges identified by WSU will be used to coalesce interdisciplinary research activity throughout the university. For our college, they should lead to future success in our research, entrepreneurial, and educational endeavors. These Grand Challenges easily incorporate our own signature research themes as well as other, emerging areas of excellence. Recall the Grand Challenges are around sustainable health; sustainable resources in food, energy, and water; advancing opportunity and equity; improving quality of life through smart systems; and national security research. The Voiland College can be major players in all of these themes, and these compelling challenges will benefit the college and help attract students to our programs.

The other major strategic theme for investment is around the student experience at WSU. The university will continue to focus on enhancing the quality and relevance of the student experience through more personalized student services, expanded learning opportunities outside the classroom, mentored research, and community building. As a result, WSU expects to see enrollment growth in both freshmen and transfer student admissions; significant improvements in student retention; and increased diversity of the student body. In the Voiland College, we are looking forward to developing and launching initiatives with these same goals.

If you have ideas, comments, or questions about how we can advance the university’s strategic priorities, please contact Dave Field, John Schneider, or me. We are interested in hearing your thoughts!

Have a safe and wonderful Thanksgiving.

Sincerely,

Dean Candis' signature

Candis Claiborn
Dean, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture