Senate. After the Cat team handed off their report, we asked the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee to review the Cat team recommendations and determine next steps. The Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee administered a survey of all faculty in Spring 2026 to gather information about faculty support for pursuing a reduced-credit degree option. This Fall, we charged them to produce a report and recommendation based on that survey, the Cat team report, and other national organization recommendations about reduced-credit degrees. We hope to be able to share that report with the Board at the February meeting. We also want to note that there are multiple pathways forward in terms of offering three- year degrees, other than reduced-credit degrees. CWU already offers dual-degree programs where students can begin taking graduate courses in their senior year of undergraduate studies and receive credit for those courses for both undergraduate and graduate degrees. Students also already self-select into accelerated degree pathways, where they complete 180 credits in three years by taking heavy course loads during the academic year and/or taking summer courses. Students come into CWU with college in the high school credits, running start, AP exam credits, and more, which can substantially reduce their time at CWU. This year we also have new academic policies in place to support prior learning assessment so students who come to CWU with career and training experiences may be able to use their prior learning to earn CWU credit. All of these options support students’ accelerated progression toward graduation and reduce their cost of attendance. As the Board discusses three-year degree possibilities, we suggest a broader view of three-year degree options than only reduced-credit degrees, and we will continue to share faculty recommendations about three-year degree opportunities throughout the academic year.
College in the High School (CiHS) Graduate Certificates
Because the CiHS graduate certificates were a topic of conversation at the July Board meeting, we wanted to provide a brief update. Last year, a Cat team examined the feasibility of developing graduate certificates to prepare high school teachers who do not meet the standard academic requirements to teach CiHS courses for CWU. The report resulted in several curriculum proposals for new graduate certificates that made their way to the Faculty Senate Curriculum Committee (FSCC) at the end of Spring quarter. Because they were presented to the committee without any policy or procedure infrastructure established, the committee had to develop criteria to inform their decision-making at the same time they were reviewing proposals. This timeline was not ideal and was the result of a lack of sufficient consultation between the Cat team and the FSCC throughout the
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