A Message From Dean Rezac – Oct. 7, 2020

Dear Colleagues,

I want to thank everyone who attended last Friday’s VCEA Town Hall. In these uncertain times, it was a great opportunity to see everyone and have candid, face-to-face conversations about the important issues facing our college.

For those of you who could not attend, I want to give you an update of Voiland College’s budget situation. As noted previously, we were asked by WSU President Schulz to reduce our fiscal year 2021 budget by 10 percent. Voiland College achieved that goal by taking some of the following steps:

  • Leaving many vacant positions unfilled.
  • Transferring expenses to other sources of funding.
  • Utilizing new FY21 revenue streams.
  • Voluntary salary donations from academic members of the VCEA Leadership Team

Unfortunately, Voiland College also had to make a few difficult decisions in order to meet its budget target that will impact the staffing in some areas of our college.

Guided by a thoughtful process and deliberated thoroughly by our leadership team, these changes include a very small reduction in our workforce as well as the strategic reassignment of a few individuals to other areas of the college.

All those who have been directly impacted by these personnel changes have been informed, and no further personnel actions will be necessary to achieve our budget reduction targets.

Although most in our college were not directly or immediately affected by this budget reduction, I recognize that this has been – and will continue to be – painful for everyone in our college.

While these have been difficult decisions, they were made in a way to ensure that we are appropriately staffed for the future. Voiland College is uniquely positioned to continue to grow revenue through our research, teaching, and outreach activities and through this growth, we’ll be better prepared for whatever the future may bring.

If you have any questions about our budget or any other topic, feel free to contact me anytime.

Thanks you for everything you to do make Voiland College strong and successful.

Go Cougs!

Mary Rezac's signature.

Mary Rezac (she/her/hers)
Dean, Voiland College of Engineering and Architecture
Washington State University
Email: mary.rezac@wsu.edu
Phone: 509-335-5593
Twitter: @VCEA_Dean
vcea.wsu.edu