brought forward a motion to the Senate for a vote. The motion to reduce the size of Senate failed on June 4, 2025. 22 o Request to reduce/diminish senate size/scope, 2025 - 2026: During AY 2025 - 2026 the President has again insisted the Senate needs to shrink, disregarding the Senate vote from the previous year, as noted in the Faculty Senate Chair report on January 14, 2026. 23 o President Wohlpart views BOT transferal of Code to his authority as an opportunity to get what he wants: a smaller, less powerful collective faculty voice: As reported in the January 14, 2026, Senate meeting, during a meeting with the Faculty Senate Chair, the ADCO Chair, and the UFC Chair on January 9, 2026, President Wohlpart indicated the Senate would shrink in the process of him taking over the Faculty Code, and would only need a curriculum committee moving forward, given his proposed decrease in scope. 24 This reduction in the size and scope of the Senate– done without agreed-upon faculty consultative processes 25 –is inconsistent with the spirit of shared governance, the history of shared governance at this institution, and stands in stark contrast to our peer institutions in the state. 26 It is also inconsistent with the BOT’s directive to align the Code with the shared governance document. o Reducing and diminishing Faculty Senate will lead to poor decision- making across CWU: Curricular decisions do not occur in a vacuum. They affect and are affected by budgetary and personnel concerns and require coordination across the University. To suggest that Senate should only exist as a curricular committee is effectively to suggest that it should not exist at all. In order for faculty to effectively have a voice in curriculum, they need to have a voice in related matters as well. ● Reduction of Faculty Involvement in Budget. Under President Wohlpart’s leadership, both faculty involvement in budget decisions and the budget allocated to academic areas has been substantially reduced. We acknowledge the real and significant budget challenges the institution has and is facing; however, the lack 22 See June 4, 2025, Faculty Senate Meeting Minutes. Accessed Jan. 18, 2026: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1DSVKVh94kB-r39ObbCUy1BOgIDXbR7-I/view?usp=sharing 23 See Chair Lindsey’s notes from her Jan. 14, 2026, Faculty Senate report. Accessed Jan. 18, 2026: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1mH8byhWxD0fuBxW5RZrux2OPs4PD5ao-/view?usp=sharing 24 Ibid. 25 See Faculty Code Section II, Part D, pp. 9-10. Accessed Jan. 17, 2026: https://www.cwu.edu/about/university-leadership/faculty-senate/_documents/facultycode.pdf 26 See footnotes 9 and 10 in the letter above, which provide details on shared governance practices at peer institutions in Washington State, specifically EWU and WWU.
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