o SEM Update Interim Dean Beeson reminded the group that the Strategic Enrollment Management Plan (SEM) was developed over 18 months ago, and they are now moving into the implementation phase. Today, they will be focusing on student retention and success. AVP Dang reported that the target for fall 2026 for first time in college students is 1613. Comparing 2025 to the current numbers in 2026, applications are up by five percent and confirmations are up by three percent, so that indication is very positive. It’s not going to make a huge increase compared to last year, but it is going to increase to about 20-25 students. Orientation numbers are up 17 percent, and housing is down four percent. The transfer target for Fall 2026 is 799. Applications and admits are down by two percent, but confirmations are up by eight percent. Transfer students tend to apply a little bit later, so we expect that number to continue to increase and go up over the next month or so. AVP Hung added that what we do between now and 2030 will determine whether we narrow the gap. Retention is one way to narrow this gap with student success programs, structural changes, and strategic investments. Interim Dean Beeson reported that in the student success program area, some options include academic recovery, emerging scholars, faculty professional development and summer Bridge and Forge programs. Some of the structural changes they are looking at include conditional admissions, transparency in cost (timely posting of tuition and housing fees), academic requirement report, and consolidated administrative holds. Strategic investments include retention specialists, Students First Center, student success date analyst, and student success and retention funds. AVP Dang summarized the presentation with one statement, “We control who we enroll.” Trustee Charbonneau asked about a report on early intervention systems for first time in college students at a future meeting and a discussion/report about what it means to be college ready.
Chair Hensler thanked the committee chairs and executive leadership team members for their reports.
Artificial Intelligence Presentation Provost Pease introduced Chad Tester, Director of the Multimodal Education Center, who presented to the group on Building AI Literacy at CWU: Multimodal’s Approach to Faculty Development and Student Readiness. He began by explaining that CWU’s Multimodal Education Center embraces the vision that technology empowers learning. The center provides instructional and multimedia technologies, support, and training for all CWU students, faculty, and staff. Their goal is to create opportunities for exploration of emerging technologies, digital media, and innovative learning spaces. Multimodal hosted their first AI workshop in November 2022, 12 days before the public launch of ChatGPT 3.5. In January of 2023, Multimodal formed an AI working group with five faculty from Philosophy, Music, Math, Geography, and Chemistry. The group met weekly on the potential of AI. They shared resources, tried understanding the dangers of AI, and brainstormed about what they needed to know now about this technology and what they would need to know about the future of this technology. Winter and Spring of 2023, they added additional faculty from across the campus to the AI Working Group. They offered workshops, two faculty open forums, and added to Multimodal’s Instructor Resources. The following academic year 2023-2024, the focus remained on academic integrity and preventing AI use. A “State of AI in Higher Education” workshop was launched and has now become an annual tradition every fall quarter. The conversation around AI began to shift from how we stop students from using AI to what we can do with AI. In January of 2024, Governor Inslee issued Executive Order 24-01, directing state agencies to adopt generative AI ethically, transparently, and responsibly. Public universities were expected to align when AI is used in administrative operations, advising, analytics, or automated decision systems, and vendor-provided AI tools. Washington state does not yet have a formal higher education AI policy, but a statewide AI Task Force is expected to deliver its final report in July 2026. CWU created its own Generative AI Taskforce in the summer of 2024. The group is led by Ginny Tomlinson and has shaped the AI guidance which we currently operate under. In 2024-2025, Mr. Tester explained that he deliberately began to shift his work
8 Board of Trustees Minutes May 21-22, 2026
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