spirit of shared governance and the established processes for meaningful faculty consultation. 5
A recent illustration of this pattern occurred when President Wohlpart proposed removing the Faculty Code from Senate authority and replacing it with administrator- controlled guidelines. This is particularly problematic since eliminating this decades-old, faculty-governed document would consolidate unprecedented authority in the President’s Office and position CWU as an outlier among public institutions. The President has repeatedly asserted that this directive originated with the Board of Trustees (BOT); however, BOT meeting minutes do not support this claim. Moreover, he has interfered with the Senate’s attempts to communicate directly with the BOT to clarify the matter. Although framed as alignment with the 2025 Shared Governance document, this approach bypasses established amendment processes, excludes Faculty Senate committees, and violates fundamental shared governance principles. These procedural flaws call into question the legitimacy and utility of the 2025 Shared Governance document. Additional details regarding the systemic undermining of shared governance are found in Appendix B. Shared governance is essential to sound decision-making in higher education, particularly during periods of external pressure, and disregarding faculty expertise weakens institutional adaptability. In an environment of declining enrollment, statewide and nationally, the strong leadership response would be to strengthen mutually supportive frameworks of governance and coordination to ensure we are all pulling in the same direction. Instead, the President's actions severely weaken our institutional frameworks by undermining long-standing shared governance structures, disenfranchising faculty, damaging morale and increasing friction between faculty and administration. CWU’s fundraising shortfalls and high administrator, staff, and faculty turnover suggest the consequences of this leadership approach are already occurring. By contrast under previous presidents, most recently President Jim Gaudino, faculty and administration collaborated on major initiatives, faculty were included early in decision-making through clear and regular partnership with Faculty Senate, and the university was stronger both fiscally and in overall morale.
5 See Faculty Code Section II.D. Accessed January 18, 2026: https://www.cwu.edu/about/university- leadership/faculty-senate/_documents/25-26-faculty-code-bot.pdf
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