WSU Regents' System Implementation Plan
On March 14, 2003, the Board of Regents approved the following recommendations for the Washington State University campuses in Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver Washington, with implementation to begin immediately.
I. Governance and Administration
A. A committee of the Board of Regents will be established to consider issues and action items related to the Spokane, Tri-Cities, and Vancouver campuses.
B. One member of this committee will be assigned to each of these campuses and work directly with the President and Campus Executive Officer (CEO) on governance matters related to the individual campuses.
C. The CEOs of each of these campuses will have a seat at each Board of Regents meeting, with all of the associated responsibilities and privileges.
D. The CEOs of the newer campuses shall be named "Chancellors," and granted authority to administer these campuses under direction of the President and Board of Regents.
E. A President's System Council shall be established to deal with system wide administrative, legislative, and planning issues. The President will serve as chair with the Provost and Chancellors as permanent members.
F. A Provost's System Council, chaired by the Provost and including appropriate Vice Provosts and the Chancellors or their designees, will consider academic plans, programs and issues for the WSU system.
G. A System Council for Administration and Operations will be formed to consider issues in all other areas. This council will include all university Vice Presidents, the appropriate counter parts on each campus, and other officers as necessary.
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II. Academic Programs
The primary criteria for approving and evaluating academic programs will be quality. Secondary criteria include responsiveness to constituent needs and cost effectiveness. Accordingly a general principle of academic administration and oversight is that the administrative structure will serve the purposes of the program. The flexibility implied in this principle includes the options that:
A. Academic units, including programs, departments, schools and colleges may be established and centered on any of the campuses in the WSU system.
B. Academic program administrators may reside on any campus and have responsibility for programs on other campuses. More than one lead administrator may be appointed in the same discipline. Multiple departments or colleges in the same general area may be established on different campuses.
C. Doctoral education will remain a system wide responsibility and not a function of location. Residency requirements for degrees should refer to residence at any WSU location. The graduate faculty shall be system wide and shall be responsible for the academic criteria and standards associated with graduate degrees.
D. Academic programs and especially lower division coursework at the WSU campuses shall be closely coordinated with other institutions, particularly with community colleges in the communities or regions where these campuses are centered.
E. A system wide administrator will be assigned responsibility for guiding the relationship between the various sources of academic credit within the WSU system including coursework on any campus, Distance Degree Program, learning centers, and other sources.
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III. Student Affairs
Specific recommendations for student affairs will be forthcoming. These will include proposals for efficiency and coordination in admissions, scholarships, recruiting, advising as well as recognition of the separate student bodies for each campus and reconstituting a system wide student council as a place where several, largely independent bodies, can work together on issues of joint concern.
IV. Faculty Affairs and Faculty Governance
Recommendations in these important areas will be forthcoming through the cooperative efforts of the Faculty Senate and the Administration in close coordination with faculty from each of the campuses. The goals are to maintain standards of excellence while providing empowerment and enfranchisement of individual faculty that are not dependent on location.
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V. Unique Roles for Individual Campuses
Spokane:
WSU Spokane is becoming a second location of the Pullman campus with emphasis on professional and graduate programs, especially in health care, design, and some management areas. We are proposing to accelerate that trend in the next few years and, over time, move to a single campus with two locations. As a reflection of this integration process we propose that the Chancellor of the Spokane campus also hold the university wide position of Vice Provost for Health Science.
Vancouver:
Southwest Washington has less access to upper division and graduate education than any other portion of the state. It also lacks in local opportunities for educational and scholarly partnerships that can lead to economic and cultural stabilization and development. As a result WSU Vancouver campus has the challenge of needing to expand across the spectrum of academic programs. We are committed to making this expansion via additional and innovative partnerships with the local community colleges including special institutes. Because of the size and nature of the Vancouver community we expect greater autonomy through the creation of departments or other academic units in the mode suggested earlier.
Tri-Cities:
The WSU Tri-Cities campus faces many of the challenges noted for WSU Vancouver. In addition it offers several unique opportunities for the WSU system. One is an opportunity to partner with the community for outreach to non-traditional populations. A second is the opportunity to develop innovative programs with the agricultural industry. Finally, this campus has a major role in the university's evolving strategic partnership with the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and the development of centers of excellence in many scientific and technical areas of research and graduate education.
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