Provost Report Provost Pease began by highlighting the new faculty that came aboard this fall. He added that a new Faculty Success Series was launched. It is a yearlong onboarding for new faculty that provides a wide range of subject matter to help them get off to a good start in their first year. He thanked Elvin Delgado, Delayna Breckon, Joy Fuqua, and Charlene Andrews for assisting with this process. A big part of research comes from grants. Between September 2024 and August 2025, over $14M in grant funding was used in 171 projects. Academic Affairs is responding to the shifting landscape. They have a slate of initiatives, projects, and priorities that are underway. He highlighted two of the projects: class scheduling strategies, which is the most significant issue we have going on. Scheduling impacts enrollment, general education classes, which always have very large wait lists. Provost Pease thanked the deans, department chairs, and advisors on all their work to get students off waitlists. Academic Affairs received some feedback from the ASCWU. They added that wait lists are not just happening for the first time in college students. It is happening for upper class men as well and sometimes classes are pushed to online just to get classes. The challenge has been identified, and they are now working to fix this issue. Trustee Jenkins asked what is driving the prime time 10:00 am - 2:00 pm scheduling. Provost Pease stated that the assumption is that this is the time students want to attend class. This is not a new issue. The team has developed next steps and those include: • The Office of the Registrar has drafted initial options for standardized patterns. • The team will meet with the Registrar and Associate Deans next week to discuss options. • A refined plan will go to the Academic Department Chairs Organization (ADCO). • Plan in place by January. Tishra Beeson, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, gave an update on the Advising Cat Team. She explained that the team’s purpose was to develop recommendations to improve academic advising at CWU to respond to gaps identified by NWCCU and a consultant that reviewed CWU’s advising. The Cat Team reviewed the history of advising at CWU to understand the full landscape and developed six consensus recommendations: 1. Promote holistic first year advising by eliminating direct to major admissions process. 2. Create a University Advising Office for first year and exploratory students. 3. Use a hybrid advising model: centralized University Advising Office, plus college-based advising. 4. Expand and empower the Academic Advising Council to lead campus advising. 5. Establish advisor career ladders to support staff retention. 6. Define and align faculty roles. Dean Beeson added that a final report will be filed next week. NWCCU Presentation Kurt Kirstein, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs, updated the board on NWCCU Accreditation. He reported that there are seven reasons to maintain accreditation: federal funding eligibility, transferability of credit, quality assurance, continuous improvement, reputation and trust, program authorization, and state and federal compliance. Accreditation is a constant, continuous process of how we can be better at how we support students. NWCCU expects institutions to demonstrate compliance with published standards, fulfill mission and strategic plan, measure and improve student learning, report publicly on admissions, retention, graduation, and post-grad outcomes, benchmark against peers, and reaffirm accreditation every seven years. During the NWCCU cycle of evaluation an Accreditation Liaison Office (ALO) is appointed to oversee the process. The process includes providing annual reports on enrollment, finances, recommendations, etc.
6 Board of Trustees Minutes October 16, 2025
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