II. President Wohlpart prioritizes consolidating his personal power and authority rather than focusing on student success or the long-term sustainability of the institution.
Rather than working collaboratively with faculty to solve the real and significant challenges CWU is facing and ensure students have the courses and support they need to thrive, President Wohlpart has persistently used his energy to reduce meaningful faculty participation in the governance of the institution. For example, he has severely limited the direct line of communication between faculty and the BOT and insisted on administrative involvement in all faculty leadership communication with the BOT. He has also made a unilateral decision to move the Faculty Senate out of his division and substantially reduced the Senate budget, without clear rationale or explanation. The Faculty Senate now has no office space, limited administrative assistance, and is facing threats of reduction or elimination of workload compensation for faculty leaders. These actions, and others, create both implicit and explicit obstacles for faculty to meaningfully engage in shared governance. This effort to marginalize faculty governance is also evident in the development and approval of the recent 2025 Shared Governance document which President Wohlpart advanced through a committee with limited faculty representation and without meaningful consultation 6 with faculty or approval by the Faculty Senate. Although the document was created outside established shared governance processes—and despite explicit assurances that it would not replace the Faculty Code—President Wohlpart now asserts that existing policy and Code must conform to the new document. 7 This is inconsistent with established governance norms, as the document restricts the faculty role in governance, conflicts with the Faculty Code and national best practices, 8 and appears driven primarily by the consolidation of power and authority within the President’s Office at the expense of shared governance. The President’s narrow definitions of faculty involvement in governance stand in contrast to shared governance commitments at our peer institutions in Washington, 6 President Wohlpart disregarded the commitments he made during the committee meetings that led to the creation of the 2025 Shared Governance Document including his commitment to engage broadly using a survey and hosting focus groups to solicit feedback from the University community. The statement proceeded to the BOT without feedback from surveys or focus groups. See shared governance group meeting notes: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1NkUjl4ihYbMjG5u7WOyinU4-dQoH8CrO/view?usp=sharing 7 This is the functional equivalent of asserting that the 2025 shared governance document supersedes existing policy and Faculty Code. 8 The Faculty Senate Bylaws and Faculty Code Committee prepared a report assessing the alignment of the Faculty Code, the new shared governance document, and national best practices in shared governance. It was shared at the January 14, 2026, Faculty Senate meeting. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1j9yOe2qQXM0SnJTyKDOVmVLIzOXt6Q07/view?usp=sharing
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