applicant for the State of Washington. This could unlock a lot of federal dollars for us to work across the state on small business innovation. Also related to elevating relationships, we entered into an MOU with the Yakama Nation Tribal Council led by our own liaison, Dr. Higheagle Strong. The presentation to the Tribal Council and the signing of the MOU completed a process that was started in 2019 but was disrupted due to the pandemic. The MOU calls for a closer collaboration with the Yakama Nation to support Native students and elevate awareness of Native American achievements in our local regions. That work will be facilitated by an advisory council. Our April 27 th ceremonial celebration and listening session, which featured seven tribal council members, a state senator, and a member of the administration was a model for relationships with tribal nations. The second goal under the core value of engagement focuses on increasing opportunities for students. Our Office for Student Leadership and Civic Engagement (SLICE) does great work with our students, but we do not have the time or capacity to develop and implement a Civic Action Plan. This is a place where we have decisions to make about how we want to go forward in this area with limited resources. President Wohlpart noted that it is his belief that a strategic plan should guide the university and be used to make decisions about where resources go. If we are not going to do something, it should probably be taken out. The Vision, Mission, Values, and Strategic Plan should be living documents, and this is an important moment for the institution to think about what our goals are. Chair Hensler stated that if we make something a priority, we need to make sure we are allocating resources to it. We need to narrow the focus of the strategic plan to things that we know we can accomplish. The strategic plan needs to continue to develop and should be a guiding document for the university and its priorities. Trustee Black added that there is an opportunity to engage a process to re-evaluate the strategic plan. President Wohlpart explained that any changes to the strategic plan would have to come from the university community and then be voted on by the board. The last initiative under the core value of engagement focuses on our work within University Advancement, building partnerships between the Foundation, Alumni Association, and the university community. This area is very strong. One example is CWU’s Night at the Mariners event. Five years ago, this event had 1000 attendees. This year, attendance was 3000. The goal for next year is 3200-3500. Under Core Value 2, which is belonging, President Wohlpart explained that this is perhaps an area where we could manage things differently in our equity and belonging work. As a university, we believe that welcoming and integrating diverse perspectives, cultures, histories, languages, literacies, and ideas is essential to our work. President Wohlpart summarized employee data and explained that all the data is available on the CWU dashboards. He added that the question about focusing and spending resources on the things that are central to where we are in this moment in revising the strategic plan, all that goes hand in hand. We need to decide if we shift our model from an attrition model for managing our budget to a more strategic model. Trustee Nellams stated that when we developed the current strategic plan, we were not looking at a model of 8,000 to 8,200 students. If this is the number we are projecting for the next five years, then we need to go back and look at what we can and cannot do.
4 Board of Trustees Minutes July 16-17, 2026
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator