CWU TRUSTEES QUARTERLY BOARD MEETING AGENDA May 21, 2026
All times are approximate
THURSDAY, MAY 21, 2026
Location: Moehring Event Center
10:00-11:00 Executive Session Participants: Trustees, President, Board Secretary, Senior Vice President Klucking, Assistant Attorney General As allowed by RCW 42.30.110 (1)(g) • To review the performance of a public employee 11:10-11:30 Call to order • Approval of the Agenda • Approval of February Board Meeting Minutes & March Special Board Meeting Minutes • Official Communications • Public Comment 11:30-12:00 Shared Equity and Belonging Leadership Update (Elvin Delgado, Ruben Cardenas) 12:10-1:00 Lunch 1:10 Call to order 1:10-3:30 Board Committee Reports 3:30-4:00 Artificial Intelligence Presentation 4:00-5:00 Shared Governance Leaders Updates 5:00 Expected Adjournment
Last updated May 11, 2026
Central Washington University Board of Trustees May 21, 2026
ACTION – Approval of the minutes of the regular meetings of February 19-20, 2026, and the minutes of the special meetings of March 20, 2026, and March 26, 2026.
We recommend the following motion:
The Board of Trustees of Central Washington University hereby approves the minutes of the regular meetings of February 19-20, 2026, and the minutes of the special meetings of March 20, 2026, and March 26, 2026.
Submitted:
Dania Cochran Chief of Staff
Approved for Submittal to the Board:
Jim Wohlpart President
Board of Trustees Minutes Board Meeting Moehring Event Center February 19-20, 2026
Draft
FEBRUARY 19, 2026 EXECUTIVE SESSION
The board convened in executive session at 11:00 a.m. for 60 minutes for the purpose of reviewing the performance of a public employee, per RCW 42.30.110 (1)(g). At 12:00 p.m., the executive session was extended 10 additional minutes and was publicly announced per RCW 42.30.110 (2). The executive session ended at 12:10 p.m. Trustees and Staff Present: Jeff Hensler, Chair Gladys Gillis, Chair Elect Erin Black, Past Chair Jeff Charbonneau Ray Conner, Trustee (Zoom)
Zabrina Jenkins, Trustee Robert Nellams, Trustee Jim Wohlpart, President Dania Cochran, Board Secretary and Chief of Staff Ellen Evans, Assistant Attorney General
Board members attended lunch with Executive Leadership Team members at 12:15 pm. No business was conducted.
BOARD MEETING Trustees Present Jeff Hensler, Chair Gladys Gillis, Chair Elect Erin Black, Past Chair Jeff Charbonneau Ray Conner (Zoom) Vy Frolov
Zabrina Jenkins Robert Nellams Staff to the Board: Jim Wohlpart, President Patrick Pease, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Joel Klucking, Board Treasurer and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Veronica Gomez-Vilchis, Interim Vice President for Student Engagement and Success
Dania Cochran, Board Secretary and Chief of Staff Ellen Evans, Assistant Attorney General Kim Dawson, Executive Assistant to the President/Board of Trustees Executive Staff: Tishra Beeson, Dean of Undergraduates Studies Ruben Cardenas, Associate Vice President, Student Engagement and Success Hung Dang, Associate Vice President, Enrollment Management
Elvin Delgado, Associate Vice President, Faculty Success Paul Elstone, Vice President for University Advancement Rodrigo Renteria-Valencia, Dean of Graduate Education, Research, and Strategic Initiatives Zoe Higheagle Strong, Associate Vice President of Tribal Relations Ginny Tomlinson, Vice Provost of Institutional Transformation and Associate Vice President of Information Services/CIO
Chair Hensler convened the board meeting at 1:15 p.m.
Chair Hensler began the meeting by sharing three main points the Board would like to communicate: 1. There has been some miscommunication, so the Board of Trustees wants to make it clear that at the July 25, 2025, meeting, they tasked President Wohlpart with taking the Shared Governance document across all of campus. This was reiterated July 30, 2025, in a campus-wide email. 2. The Board wants to make sure there is clear clarity on their expectations. The Board’s view is that all governance documents, including the Faculty Code, and everything else will need to follow the Shared Governance document as we start to move forward. 3. We need a clear path forward. This is where the BOT Academic Affairs Committee will engage directly with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee. Chair Hensler added that the Board supports President Wohlpart, and they think we are moving in a good direction. The Board understands there has been miscommunication, and they are working hard to improve on that. The Board wants to move forward together, as one Wildcat, to make sure we stay relevant in our future. Approval of Agenda Motion 26-03: Mr. Nellams moved that the Board of Trustees of Central Washington University approve the agenda of the meetings of February 19-20, 2026. Ms. Jenkins seconded the motion, which the board unanimously approved. Approval of Minutes Motion 26-04: Mr. Nellams moved that the Board of Trustees of Central Washington University approve the minutes from the regular meeting of October 16, 2025, and the special meeting of January 30, 2026. Ms. Jenkins seconded the motion. The motion was approved. Official Communications Since the last meeting, the board received ten communications, which were included in the briefing materials:
The Board acknowledges receipt of the following communications:
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1. Email from Dr. Robert Hickey, Department of Geography (ret.), dated November 22, 2025, regarding donations to CWU. 2. Email from Justin Mills, Office of the Washington State Auditor, dated January 13, 2026, regarding the beginning of CWU’s audit for fiscal year 2025. 3. Email from Justin Mills, Office of the Washinton State Auditor, dated January 20, 2026, regarding CWU’s Audit Entrance Conference. 4. Email from Joe Calise, Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, dated January 21, 2026, regarding CWU’s Fall 2025 Policies, Regulations, and Financial Review (PRFR) Evaluation Committee’s review. 5. Email from Natashia Lindsey, Faculty Senate Chair, dated January 28, 2026, regarding the Faculty Code Rewrite Survey Results. 6. Report from Faculty Senate Executive Committee, dated February 6, 2026, regarding their quarterly update to the Board. 7. Email from CWU’s Finance and Administration Leadership team, dated February 10, 2026, in support of President Wohlpart’s leadership at CWU. 8. Letter from CWU’s Executive Leadership Team, dated February 10, 2025, in support of President Wohlpart’s leadership at CWU. 9. Email from Jason Jones, Executive Director of Institutional Effectiveness, Research, and Planning, dated February 11, 2026, in support of President Wohlpart’s leadership at CWU. 10. Email from Hung Dang, Associate Vice President for Enrollment Management, dated February 11, 2026, in support of President Wohlpart’s leadership at CWU. Additional communications that were received after publication of the agenda were shared with board members via email. They will be included in the May Board Communications report. 1. A collection of five articles published in the CWU Observer, dated February 12, 2026, shared by Professor Dominic Klyve. 2. Letter from Katherine Denison, CWU Class of 2023 and Gonzaga University School of Law, J.D. Candidate, dated February 13, 2026, in support of President Wohlpart. 3. Letter from CWU’s Foundation Board Executive Committee, dated February 13, 2026, in support of President Wohlpart’s leadership at CWU. 4. Letter from Molly Kelly, Administrative and Academic Services Manager, William O. Douglas Honors College, dated February 13, 2026, in support of President Wohlpart. 5. Letter from members of the Academic Affairs leadership team, dated February 15, 2026, in support of President Wohlpart. 6. A Fiduciary Awareness Brief, created and shared by Professor Teresa Walker, dated February 15, 2026. Public Comment Dr. Hope Amason, Professor, Department of Anthropology and Museum Studies, made public comment on shared governance at CWU and concerns raised by CWU faculty. Board Discussion Chair Hensler opened it up for the Board to have a discussion. • Trustee Gillis stated that the Board Academic Affairs Committee has been doing a lot of good work with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee in the last month. Moving forward, we need
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to do the hard work together. She added that she would like to honor the fact that she has heard from the Faculty Senate that they do feel chronically unheard and have for a while. The Board also needs to decide whether the Faculty Code is a policy. Currently, it is not considered a policy which is creating concern among faculty. • Trustee Nellams reported that for him, communication and relationship building will be the focus moving forward. • Chair Hensler added that one of his goals when he became chair was to do more of the work at the committee level and have committee chairs report back to the full board at the public meetings. The hope is for board committees to do deeper dives into institutional topics and report back so collectively everyone will know what’s happening on campus. It is not the board’s role or responsibility to be in the day-to-day operations. They are here to help move the university forward. • Trustee Jenkins stated she is excited about the opportunity to address issues and to move forward with a growth mindset. Keeping at the forefront that we are in service of our students and all of us need to work collaboratively and keep that in mind. • Trustee Charbonneau added that he cares deeply for CWU and wants to make sure that the university moves forward in a way that makes sense. When you have difficult situations, it is easy to forget your blessings, and it’s easy to forget about all the amazing things happening here. The board is going to ensure that the student experience stays the number one focus. President’s Report President Wohlpart reminded the group that at the July Board Retreat the Board asked that we ground ourselves in our collaboratively developed Vision, Mission, and Values which provide us with our north star as well as with our Shared Governance framework which provides us with an understanding of how we interact together across our various roles through honoring each other’s expertise. The Board of Trustees approved the initial Vision, Mission, and Values in 2022. These statements are living statements, so when we had the opportunity to do some reflection, we brought all the shared governance groups together. They supported an update to our Vision, Mission, and Values. The Board of Trustees are the only ones who have the authority to approve a vision and mission statement, so on Friday, May 16, 2025, the Board of Trustees approved the updated vision statement: “Central Washington University will be a model learning community of access and opportunity.” The new vision statement remains aspirational for our community. While we have made great strides to take down barriers to higher education, there is still much work to do. We have a vested interest in making certain that the opportunities that we know help students achieve at high levels are available to all students. We continue to make strides towards building our capacity to be a learning community, willing to investigate our current practices, policies, structures and systems, be curious and humble, and then embrace new ways to do things. Our Mission Statement tells us how we will move towards achieving our aspirational vision, focusing on the development of “high impact practices, sustainability, and authentic community partnerships.” We have heard a great deal in our meetings and in the State of the University about the work we are doing in all three areas. With the arrival of Dr. Higheagle Strong, we have now turned focused attention to building relationships with tribal nations. We also developed a unifying value and three core values to guide our programs, projects, and initiatives. Our unifying value of student success is the central driving
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force of all we do. The core values of engagement, belonging, and stewardship round out our statement of foundational beliefs that provide a compass for our work. Our strategic plan is built out of these four values. Finally, our Shared Governance framework, Aligning Priorities to Advance the University’s Vision and Mission, outlines how we will come together as a university community to understand and honor the roles, expertise, and authority of the various constituencies across the university. Living into this framework is a work in progress because it means fundamentally shifting how we think about our roles, responsibilities, and relationships. This is, perhaps, some of the most challenging work we are engaged in. It is essential for our success for it provides us with the foundation for the execution and implementation of our vision, mission, values and strategic plan. Without embracing new ways of thinking and interacting and new ways of understanding our relationships, it will be challenging to bring our aspirational vision to life. Trustee Jenkins asked if shared governance could be defined so that everyone is operating from the same understanding. President Wohlpart explained that shared governance is about taking the institution forward together and aligning priorities. A critical piece of healthy shared governance is understanding and honoring the authority and expertise of other groups. Trustee Black, who was part of the Shared Governance Group, added that as we start living into the document, we are building an understanding of when and where decisions are made while bringing different groups to the table. President Wohlpart gave a mid-year report on the three goals that the Board gave him in July 2025. Goal 1 – Make the Shared Governance document a living document across the university: • Revising all administrative, staff, faculty and student practices, policies, and procedures, as well as writing new documents based on what is stated in the shared governance document. • This includes the Trustees who have been engaged in reflecting on and changing their structures, systems, and policies based on what we have learned. The Board also asked for an overview of CWU policies based on Mr. Pedersen’s work revising CWU policies which began in the 2023-2024 academic year. The new policy library that was developed began the process of reorganizing and realigning all CWU policies based on the Policy on Policy Management that was approved two years ago. The new policy framework was developed collaboratively through our policy approval system and approved by our University Policy Advisory Committee (UPAC), which includes members of our shared governance constituencies. The policy framework identifies the five policy executives who are the owners of the policies: Board of Trustees, the Chief of Staff, and the three divisional Vice Presidents. The Policy on Policy Management outlines the process for revising and approving policies that is much more transparent and inclusive than in the past, with a review process that allows every member of the university community to see what changes are being proposed to any policy. The policy revision starts with either an employee making a suggestion to the policy executive or the policy executive making a determination that a change to a policy should be considered. A form is filled out (called the Policy Proposal and Impact Statement – or PPIS) that goes to the Executive Leadership Team for review and approval. If approved, the policy executive designates a policy writer who works through a collaborative process that includes relevant members of our university to draft suggested changes. After that, a series of reviews by the University Policy Advisory Committee (or UPAC) and the university community provide a transparent process for all members of the university to comment on changes to any policy. After the
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UPAC makes their final recommendation, the president makes the final decision on approval, rejection, or remanding for further discussion. If necessary, the changes come to the Board of Trustees. There are five policy executives. The first policy executive, the Board of Trustees, oversees policies that govern their operations. Currently, authority for approval of all policies is delegated to the President. The Board will need to decide if they should retain authority and approval of board policies. The second policy executive, the Chief of Staff, oversees policies for Civil Rights and Athletics. Our Civil Rights policies are in a constant state of revision and updating, based on what is happening at the federal level. The third policy executive is the Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs. Our Academic Affairs policies are among the most complex, with over half of the content consolidated into a single, lengthy policy that spans many topics and contains significant redundancies. To address this, the Provost convened two task forces, including Faculty Senate leadership and administrators, to develop a new framework that reorganizes the long policy and aligns it with the broader Academic Affairs policy set. The goal is to organize policies into clear, thematic groups that are easier to manage. That work is nearly complete, and Thomas Pedersen will work with the Provost, as policy executive, to finalize the recommendations for the new thematic structure. There have been no revisions or updates to these policies themselves, and all the responsible units remain unchanged at this time. The next step is to begin the process of analyzing policy content to make certain that they are up-to-date and appropriately aligned. When policies are assigned to the Faculty Senate to be the policy writer, the Faculty Senate continue to have the authority to assign the revision process to its appropriate committee. This opportunity has not changed with the new Policy on Policy Management process. The fourth policy executive is the Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration, who oversees policies in several areas, including the policy framework, operations, employees, health/safety/security, and standards of conduct. All these policies, with the exception of standards of conduct, are currently undergoing review using the policy framework process. The Standards of Conduct Policy includes such things as Workplace Violence, Use of State Property, Conflict of Interest, and Ethical Standards. Most of these policies have not been reviewed or updated for about 10 years. They are on the docket for the next round of review and revision. The fifth policy executive is the Vice President for Student Engagement and Success. The initial planning document for policies related to student travel and to behavioral intervention and threat assessment have been completed, so the review process can begin now. The Service and Activities Fee policy has been revised, including recommendations from the Board of Trustees last year and from legal counsel. These changes will be presented to the University Policy Advisory Committee for final review. Work to begin revising the Washington Administrative Code for the CWU Student Conduct Code has started as well. The collaborative revision of the Faculty Code using the Shared Governance document was in the President’s portfolio. At the January 30, 2026, special meeting of the Board of Trustees, this revisions process shifted to the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee. Goal 2: Sustainable Financial Model The work of developing a sustainable financial model is ongoing. One of the most important aspects of the challenging work we do around managing a budget in difficult times is to share accurate and
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complete information. Detailed budget information is shared at meetings with faculty and staff leaders, as well as in open forums. There is a Budget Development Team and a President’s Budget Advisory Committee that includes representatives from our shared governance groups. These two teams really are the initial drivers that help set the budget and monitor our progress. Their input is essential in making sure that our university community is involved in making budgetary decisions. These groups include faculty, staff, and students so that we have full involvement of the university community in the initial setting and the monitoring of our budget. The vice presidents also share detailed information not only about the university budget but also about their division budgets at open forums. This happens for the President’s division as well. While we have done really good work in sharing information on our budget, the work is always ongoing. Before moving on to the next goal, President Wohlpart shared an analysis that was done by Jason Jones in Institutional Effectiveness. It compares winter terms starting in 2021 through 2026. The First Time in College students bottomed out in 2024 and are slowly creeping back up. Transfer student enrollments are continuing to go down. Further analysis shows that across the state, students are not leaving community colleges and going on to the six public universities. We do not know if this is a trend that will continue, but this could have a huge impact on our total enrollment number and our ability to get our numbers up. Jason Jones will continue digging into this and share more information as he has it. Goal 3: Elevate Equity and Belonging We have shifted our strategy for expanding equity and belonging across the university from having a single office leading the work to sharing the responsibility for that work across the campus. This will test our ability to live into our vision of being a model learning community and will require us to investigate what we think and believe and develop new ways of thinking and coming together as a community. The Shared Equity and Belonging Leadership Committee is making good progress and has begun the process of reading, reflecting, and sharing. While we have done good work over the last several years moving towards the creation of an equitable, fair, and caring university where everyone feels included, to build out responsibility and accountability for this work across the university will be ongoing and take time. Wildcats Rising • CWU’s Jazz I class is the premier instrumental jazz ensemble and performs under the direction of Dr. Keith Karns. Jazz I was recently invited to perform at the 17 th Annual Jazz Education Network Conference, providing our students with the opportunity to get experience performing at a professional conference. • Two CWU graduate students joined Dr. Susan Kaspari in Norway in December to study ice cores, furthering our understanding of the world’s changing climate. • Superintendent Robert Bowman partnered with our music department to have the CWU Pep Band, under the direction of Kyle Edwards, perform at a Naches basketball game and to play with and mentor young band members. • Last week CWU partnered with Naches, Othello, Mattawa, and Royal City School Districts to bring 50 students to CWU for the Amazing Shake Event, a skills-based competition that helps students build confidence in communication, professionalism, and critical thinking. • About five years ago, CWU and Wenatchee High School started envisioning a way to build a seamless and integrated pipeline of students from high school into college. Wenatchee High School administrators and teachers built several pathways for students to prepare for college
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through taking dual enrollment classes, either College in the High School from CWU or Running Start from Wenatchee Valley College, starting in 10 th grade. For the past two years, CWU has joined Wenatchee High School to present to ninth graders and their parents on this opportunity. • On Thursday, January 29, 2026, Asher Cai, CWU Women’s Basketball, broke the Great Northwest Athletic Conference record for the most points. The former record was 2001; she ended up at 2006 after that game. She currently has 2132 points, and the team is currently in first place in the GNAC. • After completing a national search for the position of Vice President for Student Engagement and Success, Verónica Gómez-Vilchis has accepted the role on a permanent basis. • Dr. Zoë Higheagle Strong has been busy since she started with us about a month and a half ago, meeting with members of the university and local communities, organizing events, and listening. Zoë is a member of the Nez Perce Tribe and a descendant of Yakama Nation and Umatilla. • President Wohlpart and AVP Higheagle Strong attended the winter convening of the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians. They learned about federal and state issues that affect tribal sovereignty and rights, climate change and sustainability, and education and health. The upcoming CWU convenings: a ceremonial celebration and listening session and OSPI’s Office of Native Education Language and Literacy summit were announced to the group. • With the appointment of Verónica Gómez-Vilchis as the VP for Student Engagement and Success and the arrival of AVP Higheagle Strong, our Executive Leadership team is now complete. • Focus on external affairs, as suggested by the Board to President Wohlpart last summer, can now be fully embraced. Board Committee Reports • Executive Committee and Governance o Committee Report (Gladys Gillis) Trustee Gillis reported that the executive committee has been meeting with President Wohlpart regularly about his goals (shared governance, a sustainable budget, and equity and belonging). They discuss these goals every time they meet, along with updates from the Governor’s office on budget, legislative activity, enrollment updates and projections, and upcoming board agendas. In addition, they discuss any updates on pending legal issues. o Board Policies (Dania Cochran) Dr. Cochran walked board members through suggested revisions to board policies. Board policies consist of eight sections with 37 policies total. The Board is the Policy Executive, and Dr. Cochran, as Secretary to the Board, is the Policy Writer. In the fall, Dr. Cochran began reviewing the Board policies with Thomas Pedersen. As they reviewed policies, referencing the Shared Governance document, they found nine policies that needed to be updated with common language and began drafting a new policy to be considered: a Board of Trustees Statement on Shared Governance. Based on conversations between summer and fall 2025, the Board Executive Committee was recommending that the Board no longer approve student policies or the Faculty Code. Authority for student policies has been delegated to President Wohlpart, who then delegated this authority to Verónica Gómez-Vilchis, VP for Student Engagement and Success. The Board had a discussion regarding where Faculty Code authority should sit. It was decided that since the BOT Academic Affairs Committee has been tasked with working with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee on the Faculty Code and shared governance, it would be best to keep that authority with the board until they have completed
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their work. They also suggested some changes to the evaluation of the president section of the policy and agreed to revisit the Board of Trustees Legal Power and Responsibilities policy later. President Wohlpart explained that the board did not need to vote on any of these policies today. They will go through the UPAC process and come to the president to approve. Unless it is decided that the Board will approve their policies. Chair Hensler stated for the record that academic freedom is very valuable, and the Board has no intention of taking that away. The Board had no suggested revisions to the Trustees Conflict of Interest Standards Policy, and the Board of Trustees Constitution. AAG Evans suggested one revision to the Board of Trustees Bylaws under the Executive Committee of the Board. She will work with Dr. Cochran on the language to use. A new policy was introduced: Board of Trustees Statement on Shared Governance. Basically, this information was removed from the Board of Trustees Statement on Academic Freedom policy and moved into its own separate policy. AAG Evans explained that if shared governance is moved into policy, it is no longer living document, so that is something to consider. Approval of Elevating the Shared Governance Document to CWU Policy Motion 26-05: Ms. Gillis moved that the Board of Trustees of Central Washington University elevate the Shared Governance document to CWU Policy and that the Board retain approval on this policy. Mr. Nellams seconded the motion. The motion was approved. Approval of Board Policies being approved by the Board Motion 26-06: Ms. Gillis moved that the Board of Trustees of Central Washington University approve all Board policies. Mr. Nellams seconded the motion. The motion was approved. Trustee Gillis reported that the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee will continue reviewing the Faculty Code with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee, using the Shared Governance document.
The Board tabled the discussion of moving vision and mission into policy for a future meeting.
o Board Self-Evaluation Results (Dania Cochran) Dr. Cochran reported that the Board conducted a self-assessment. All trustees, other than the student trustee, completed the survey. The student trustee has not participated in this survey in the past due to the nature of the questions and the one-year term limit. The survey had 11 questions with a response scale that ranged from five being extremely engaged or extremely satisfied and one being not at all engaged or not at all satisfied. Responses showed that overall board engagement is very high and board members are satisfied with board operations and meeting preparation. Some of the comments generally regarded excitement for the new committee structure, a desire to attend more CWU functions and engagements, and showing a genuine enjoyment of working with this leadership. The same Board self-assessment will be conducted in July to reflect on the 2025-26 experience. This will then provide three years of board self-evaluations for our accreditation process. Dr. Kirstein and Dr. Cochran are working to collect other board assessment tools and information from NWCCU and other institutions to develop a best practices example. Trustees added that they would like to see year-to-year comparisons
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to see how they are doing and to hold themselves accountable. They would also like to gather feedback from the student trustee.
• Academic Affairs Committee
o Committee Report (Jeff Charbonneau) Trustee Charbonneau reported that the Board of Trustees Academic Affairs Committee (BOT AAC) met with the Faculty Senate Executive Committee (FSEC) in the fall by Zoom to discuss standard procedures. At the request of the FSEC, the BOT AAC met with the group again on January 29. The FSEC wanted to offer an explanation of the Faculty Senate feedback regarding President Wohlpart. On January 30, the Board held a special meeting where the BOT AAC was charged with working with the FSEC to provide clarity around the Faculty Code and its alignment with the Shared Governance document. Trustee Charbonneau reminded the group that the Board approved the Shared Governance document in May 2025 and stated that all university policies and practices should be reviewed for alignment with the Shared Governance document. In July 2025, the Board approved the Faculty Code on an interim basis with the understanding that they would get an update in October on how the Faculty Code would be revised and updated using the Shared Governance document. The Faculty Code did not come forward again in October, so discussions have been ongoing for some time. The BOT AAC and the FSEC have had three meetings since January 30. They have developed a set of guiding principles to have respectful, open, and truthful communication between the BOT AAC and the FSEC and the rest of the university. In addition, they are conducting a fact-finding process to gather information needed to determine how to proceed with this alignment. This includes contacting representatives from other universities and reaching out to the Attorney General’s office. The group has looked at other expertise on policy alignment, and they are trying to determine how to engage other internal stakeholders in this process. Trustee Charbonneau added that the BOT AAC will not be making any final decisions in this work. Any decisions that need to be made will be brought to the entire board and discussed in an open public meeting. Some factors that the group is looking at include: • How do we align the Faculty Code with the Shared Governance document? • How do we align the Faculty Code with current fiscal realities and state and federal landscapes? • How do we ensure consistent, clear, and accurate communication? Trustee Charbonneau also explained that while many of the meetings of the BOT AAC will be devoted to the specific charge from January 30, they will need to focus on other work of the university to move things along. The entire board will get an update on this progress at the May meeting. o Provost’s Report (Patrick Pease) Provost Pease gave an update on the new structured scheduling system. The goals of doing this work include: • to increase retention and graduation rates for our students by supporting full, consistent course schedules. • to improve in-person opportunities for residential students. • to enhance orientation and support enrollment goals by ensuring that new incoming students have access to full schedules. • to clarify the academic pathways for four-year planning for students.
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The consultation process was robust and impactful. It included feedback from associate deans, Registrar’s office, ADCO, Deans, Faculty Senate, and ASCWU. Provost Pease gave a very high level view of the structured scheduling system and explained that there are six guiding principles to support best practices. Departments are being asked to fit their schedules within these guidelines to help minimize class conflicts across the whole schedule. A waiver process has been created to assist with a small number of classes, for a variety of reasons, will not fit into this model. The deans will approve these waivers. Provost Pease explained that two of the Cat Teams have completed their work. The Advising Cat Team has moved into the final phase which is implementation of recommendations. The second Cat Team that has finished their work is around accelerated or three-year bachelor’s degrees. Their report is done and conversations are just now beginning around implementation. Regarding NWCCU Accreditation, we submitted our policies, regulations, and financial review last fall. We received positive feedback from NWCCU with only two minor findings which have already been addressed. CWU’s progress in governance, financial stewardship, and institutional policies have been affirmed. Our focus has now shifted to the year seven evaluation of institutional effectiveness, which includes preparing our self-study. Upcoming key milestones: Provost Pease then highlighted a couple of new initiatives that provide support for faculty. The first initiative is called “Faculty Unplugged,” which is hosted by Dr. David Douglas. This initiative was created to build community at CWU by building connections. The inaugural event was held January 21, 2026, and focused on stories of grit. Given the success and praise of the first event, it is going to be expanded, and the next one will focus specifically on staff experiences. A second initiative that is underway is a new faculty writing program led by Elvin Delgado, AVP for Faculty Success. It is a weekly program provided structured time and space for scholarly and creative writing. Finally, Multimodal Learning regularly provides faculty development programs. A series of workshops are offered throughout the winter and spring quarter will provide faculty development opportunities on several topics. In addition to the workshops, Multimodal Learning has built AI classes for both faculty and students that, when completed, lead to a digital badge. These are five-week programs tailored to each audience, and they focus on AI literacy essentials. These are led by Chad Tester in Multimodal Learning, who we hope to have present on this at the next board meeting. o AUC Update (Ginny Tomlinson, Rodrigo Renteria-Valencia) The Adaptive University Council update was tabled until the May 2026 meeting. • Currently, draft sections are completed. • By April 30, we will have a near final draft. • By June, we will have a fully completed self study to submit during the summer. • Our site visit is October 14-16, 2026.
• Finance and Administration Committee o Committee Report (Ray Conner)
Trustee Conner reported that the Finance and Audit Committee met with staff last week and received updates on Winter 2026 enrollment. They had a brief look at the Fall 2026 First Time in College recruiting trends. Staff also shared an update on the year-to-year revenue and expenses, indicating revenues that are generally on target and expenses that show favorable thus far. Last October, the committee directed the staff to develop a long-term projection of enrollment under three different
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scenarios: increasing, flat, and declining numbers and to include overall enrollment and the associated budgetary impact of each scenario, as well as a plan for responding to each. The staff shared progress on the project with a preliminary view of what the budget impact would be under each scenario. They will finalize that enrollment projection model and engage the entire university to develop plans for each scenario. The committee also received routine updates on capital planning, information security, internal audit, as well as an update on the progress of the State Auditor’s financial statement audit for fiscal year 2025. o Budget Presentation (Joel Klucking) VP Klucking gave a summary of the current year, year to date revenue for State and Local Funds. These funds are about two thirds of the university that is mostly the core operations of the university. We are looking pretty good this year for revenues. On the expense side, we are looking favorable to even the prior year, which is because we have spent less this year than we did the prior two years. We have made good progress on cost containment. In the system funds, housing and dining make up 70 percent of all activity. Revenue is behind last year due to fewer students participating in housing and dining, and this year, we flattened our billing to spread across three quarters. We used to charge more in the fall, the average in winter, and then less in spring. Spreading the cost for students across all three quarters is taking down barriers to student success. Generally speaking, expenses in the system funds are coming in relative to the level of revenue. In the first six months, expenses are looking great, but we have some concern about the full year forecast because we started with fewer students and the new flat billing system. VP Klucking shared a preliminary look at the three five-year scenarios that were created at the request of the finance and audit committee of the board and explained that we are moving into the planning phase; what would we do and how will we plan under each of these scenarios. He added that they are starting to track expanded revenue streams and the top five include: 1. College in the High School 2. Facility Rentals VP Klucking then gave an overview of CWU’s debt portfolio and explained that we have pledged our revenues for 30 years of our bonds. We have a foundational document, the 2004 Master Resolution, that provides the authority from the Board of Trustees to be able to issue revenue bonds out to the marketplace. Every time we go out to the market to sell bonds, we must do an official statement for that series of bonds. Then we get a credit rating and work with bond counsel. Historically, we have been doing this since the first residential buildings were built on campus. Within the next 10 years, we are going to see a significant drop off in our total debt portfolio. Trustee Nellams reported that our actual enrollment came in at 7830, which was higher than our target of 7812. The recruitment target for First Time in College is 1740, and the recruitment target for transfers is 910. Student Engagement and Success continues to focus on student development and belonging through coordinated programming. In addition, other key efforts include the expansion of the Multicultural Center and securing program approvals critical for military-connected students. The Multicultural Center has delivered 31 programs, serving almost 2300 students. The Veterans and Military Connected Student Center secured Washington Student Achievement Council approval of CWU 3. Land Sale/Partnerships 4. Electricity Generation 5. Deep Well Geothermal • Student Engagement and Success Committee o Committee Report (Robert Nellams)
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degree programs for the academic year and ensured continued access to VA educational benefits, serving 609 students. The Office of Student Rights and Responsibilities has strengthened compliance, and it is fully staffed. Career Services provided 488 career counseling opportunities to 370 students, and they hosted 18 career events for over 3000 students. Student Leadership Involvement and Community Engagement supported 12 registered student organizations with travel funding for conferences, competitions, and dual experiences impacting about 315 students. The Office of Case Management supported 287 unique students. PATH participation doubled in the last year and have almost 2000 care calls completed for first year students. In addition, they received $20K from the Washington Health Care Authority for collegiate recovery, and they launched a Wildcat Ride Safe/Fee Late Night Ride Share program. The Student Counseling Services has seen 311 clients, 1415 total appointments, with an average wait time of less than five days. Student Health Services has handled 1400 total appointments, including 300 new patients. Mental health issues have been the top diagnosis. University Recreation has had 56,500 recreational center entries and is now fully staffed post-Covid. o SEM Update (Hung Dang, Tishra Beeson) AVP Hung reported that Winter 2026 total enrollment is 7930. Compared to last year, it is a decline of 2.6 percent, equal to about 214. The fall to winter melt rate was -4.5 percent, which represents about 379 fewer students. Retention of first-year students from 2025 registering for their first winter quarter is 95 percent. Last year, we hit 93 percent, so we had a dip of 1 percent this year. Traditionally, it has been around 91 percent. AVP Hung then gave an update on the Strategic Enrollment Management (SEM) Plan. The plan was created based on supporting the university mission, vision, value on student success, student opportunities, and access. Goals of the SEM plan focus on growing enrollment, student retention and success, and academic support and student engagement. Currently, applications are up and confirmations are up. We still have two more months until we get a sense of what our numbers might be for fall. We need to continue establishing our recruitment pipeline for the future for first time in college students by expanding prospect engagement, partnerships with OSPI, guaranteed admissions, College in the High School and Running Start, earlier scholarship and financial aid packaging, and on the spot admissions. For transfer students, we need to do more on the spot admissions, provide timely and transparent transfer credit evaluations, offer seamless pathways, and move our scholarship package amount up to $6K over three years. Dean Beeson explained that when the first time in college cohort comes in, we follow them for the entire year and try to monitor what their retention is. The aspirational target is 75 percent. One strategy that is happening now is the early academic alert. It is an early intervention platform that allows faculty and advisors to submit a concern if a student might need some additional academic support or if they see some patterns that we might need to mobilize an intervention. Faculty have been very engaged in this process. They take attendance and then they do report on those academic alerts. We served about 1300 students in the fall quarter, which was a significant uptick, so we are seeing that engagement is high. Then our academic success coaches and our academic advisors reach out directly to those students. They are persistent. They call, text, and email them to let them know they are not alone. They started to see more of a response and engagement from these students. Now they have something called a Wellington High Five, which faculty can submit if they see improvement or positive growth from a student. It comes through the alert systems and can be tracked to see where growth and improvement is happening. There is a lot of cross-divisional collaboration happening and they are in the process of having all the services that students engage in regularly brought into one environment. A “Paying for College: What You Need to Know” guide has been developed for prospective students and
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their families. It has an incredible amount of information. For future directions, we are looking at how we ensure that all the students we are admitting will have the full extent of support that they need to be academically successful. They are looking at building data-informed strategies to help with academic recovery, and across all divisions, the team is looking at how to remove administrative barriers to help students navigate our systems.
Chair Hensler thanked the committee chairs and executive leadership team members for their reports.
Adjournment Motion 26-07: Ms. Black moved that the Board of Trustees of Central Washington University adjourn the meeting for February 19, 2026. Mr. Nellams seconded the motion. The motion was approved.
Meeting adjourned at 4:43 p.m.
FEBRUARY 20, 2026 EXECUTIVE SESSION
The board convened in executive session at 8:30 a.m. for 30 minutes for the purpose of reviewing the performance of a public employee and to discuss with legal counsel representing the agency litigation or potential litigation per RCW 42.30.110 (1)(g)(i). At 9:00 a.m., the executive session was extended 10 additional minutes and was publicly announced per RCW 42.30.110 (2). The executive session ended at 9:10 a.m. Trustees and Staff Present: Jeff Hensler, Chair Gladys Gillis, Chair Elect Erin Black, Past Chair Jeff Charbonneau Ray Conner, Trustee (Zoom) Zabrina Jenkins, Trustee Robert Nellams, Trustee Jim Wohlpart, President Joel Klucking, Board Treasurer and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Dania Cochran, Board Secretary and Chief of Staff Ellen Evans, Assistant Attorney General
BOARD MEETING Trustees Present Jeff Hensler, Chair Gladys Gillis, Chair Elect Erin Black, Past Chair Jeff Charbonneau Ray Conner (Zoom) Vy Frolov
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Zabrina Jenkins Robert Nellams Staff to the Board: Jim Wohlpart, President Patrick Pease, Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs
Joel Klucking, Board Treasurer and Senior Vice President for Finance and Administration Veronica Gomez-Vilchis, Interim Vice President for Student Engagement and Success Dania Cochran, Board Secretary and Chief of Staff Ellen Evans, Assistant Attorney General Kim Dawson, Executive Assistant to the President/Board of Trustees Executive Staff: Tishra Beeson, Dean of Undergraduates Studies Ruben Cardenas, Associate Vice President, Student Engagement and Success Hung Dang, Associate Vice President, Enrollment Management Elvin Delgado, Associate Vice President, Faculty Success Rodrigo Renteria-Valencia, Dean of Graduate Education, Research, and Strategic Initiatives Zoe Higheagle Strong, Associate Vice President of Tribal Relations Call to Order Chair Hensler called the meeting to order at 9:15 a.m. and explained that the board wanted to make a statement. Trustee Charbonneau began by stating that the board wants the type of university where all individuals on campus are able to be heard and share their thoughts and ideas. This is the foundation of what shared governance is all about. Trustee Jenkins thanked the university community for bringing concerns forward and added that we have an opportunity to learn from where we are and move forward. The board has decided to bring in someone external to coach us through the work we have ahead. This is not meant to be punitive. This is a demonstration of an investment in our institutional health to build trust and move the institution forward. University Seal Presentation AVP Hobert explained that they are taking Marketing Communications and brand in a different direction than what has been seen at the university before. One area is taking all of our audiences into account, not just prospective students, but also members of the community, legislators, and any other groups that we work with to have a cohesive external presence. So with the brand work, they have been looking to the past to inform the brand and also looking to the future to see what we need. One of the ways we represent ourselves externally is through our registered marks. AVP Hobert introduced Ashford Stamper, who is the creative director. Mr. Stamper explained that they have been doing a lot of foundational work to strengthen and standardize the CWU identity over the last year and a half. The work isn’t about changing anything about CWU. It is about making sure we present ourselves consistently, clearly, and credibly, trying to bring structure to our evolution. Mr. Stamper showed a snapshot of many individual representations of the brand that has evolved over the last decade. The goal is to reduce this kind of fragmentation and replace it with a clear visual. The university seal is different than all the other marks. It is more of an institutional symbol and says ceremony. It is a very formal part of the university, and because of that institutional significance, it is something that the board reviews ad formally approves before any changes are made. They are not proposing any redesign or reimagining of the seal. They are simply referencing some cosmetic refinements to address technical issues and ensure better alignment with the broader identity.
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