2024-2025 Summary Report
Research, Creativity, and Engagement
Over the past year, Voiland College has made significant progress in advancing its strategic initiatives to strengthen research, creativity, and engagement.
Faculty retention efforts focused on creating a supportive and collaborative environment. Junior faculty participated in inter-campus visits, system-wide orientation, community, and team-building activities. Recognition has improved through award nominations and outreach, although additional coordination is still needed to connect faculty with experienced research teams and broaden nomination efforts. Leadership discussions about new metrics for tracking faculty engagement and retention are underway.
Professional development for junior faculty has expanded. The Associate Dean of Research’s office hosted CAREER- and NSF- proposal workshops, and a mock review panel will be conducted this summer to help early-career faculty sharpen submissions.
Junior faculty also took part in NETI and other teaching development programs, while a number visited external research partners, including PNNL. Plans to support CAREER applicants with writing assistance are still pending implementation, and additional funding would help ensure broad access to external development programs in future years.
VCEA has taken steps to attract and support high-quality graduate students. Students were guided through key fellowship opportunities via new advising tools, handouts, and workshops. The ENGR 581 graduate seminar continued to grow in use, and there is strong interest in expanding IDP implementation. However, more communication is needed to clarify funding and fellowship processes for both faculty and students, particularly for domestic applicants.
Looking forward, the task force is working to develop a funding gap support grant initiative and improving travel support for junior faculty, to help seed new research proposals and collaborations across campuses.
Student Success and Belonging
Over the past year, Voiland College has made progress toward improving student success and building a stronger sense of belonging through programming and outreach changes at the university, college, and department levels.
On-campus student event highlights include a successful all-college scavenger hunt to help students locate resources and win VCEA swag, as well as tabling events with International Programs. Other pilot activities, such as LEGO building sessions and game nights had low attendance and will not likely be repeated in the coming year.
A VCEA “tool bag” program was developed in ENGR120 where students personalized their own tool bag, including tools, with the aim to increase a sense of pride and belonging in the college.
A VCEA Food Bank was established in Dana Hall, and plans are underway to launch a Student Wellness Center, with a goal to open in Fall 2025.
Recruitment efforts at the high school level gained traction through several VCEA student ambassadors who visited their alma maters over winter break to share their experiences and promote the college. Community college outreach has expanded, with faculty and staff participating in transfer fairs, classroom visits, and presentations to both students and advisors across Washington. VCEA has also began exploring deeper partnerships, such as a possible monthly presence at Spokane Falls Community College, and is working to improve online resources, including updated transfer webpages, articulation tools, and virtual tour scheduling.
Support for transfer students continues to grow, with more than 75 one-on-one meetings and several admitted student events hosted this year. VCEA is also exploring new transfer scholarships, alignment of a “Cougar Guarantee” transfer admissions policy, and new marketing materials to better serve future cohorts.
Academic support initiatives gained traction this year. ENGR 107 was offered in Spring 2025 as an engineering-focused introductory math course and is being considered for mandatory enrollment for students with specific ALEKS scores. Collaborative work with the Math and Physics departments is ongoing to better align content in foundational courses with engineering needs.
Meanwhile, a new first-year course called First Year Interest (ENGR 101) is being developed to start in Spring 2026, with the aim of improving first-year retention.
Advisors are working with faculty to track midterm performance in bottleneck courses, though more work is needed to strengthen early intervention.
Career readiness and post-graduation outcomes remain a priority. Survey coordination is improving through the linkage of the VCEA exit survey with the WSU placement survey, supported by a committee. Launched in Spring 2025, WSU has invested in a new tool for placement data collection that directly contacts graduates up to 6 months post-graduation.
Plans to showcase current students and recent graduates are progressing, with digital signage and social media being utilized. Additionally, a career readiness assessment tool is under review to help evaluate the outcomes of experiential learning programs like internships and service projects.
Employee Development, Wellness, and Culture
The Employee Development, Wellness, and Culture Task Force advanced several initiatives to strengthen workplace connection and recognition. This year, the college improved communication about employee achievements through the VCEA Weekly Newsletter. Events such as the monthly VCEA Reading & Discussion Group, Student and Employee Excellence Awards, VCEA Town Halls, VCEA Day, and sponsored lectures—including the Anjan Bose Lecture—also offered opportunities for faculty and staff to connect and engage. The task force continues to explore opportunities to build community within the college.
Infrastructure
The Infrastructure Task Force continues to make steady progress toward improving and expanding Voiland College facilities.
Updates were shared with the VCEA community at this year’s VCEA Day, highlighting construction progress of Schweitzer Engineering Hall and the college’s vision for its facilities.
The task force continues to define and monitor financial goals that will support new construction and major renovations, and is actively identifying alumni, industry partners, and other friends of the college with relevant experience who can contribute to facility planning and support.