FSEC Clarifications about the Proposed Justification for the Vote (Motion No. 25-13)
FSEC Clarification on justification point I (page 3 of document).
• Petition Language: 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. FSEC Clarification: The proposal to rewrite the Faculty Code outside of the established Faculty Senate processes represents a significant change. As such, the FSEC brought the proposal to the Faculty Senate on January 14, 2026 1 and asked Senators to discuss the proposal with their constituents, before voting on whether the FSEC should support the plan. The results of the survey indicated overwhelming disapproval of the plan. 2 The FSEC agrees with the petitioners’ assertion that “BOT meeting minutes do not support this claim” that the directive to rewrite the Code outside of Senate processes came from the Board and notes that this raises significant legal and procedural concerns under the Washington State Open Public Meetings Act (RCW 42.30). 3 This law states that higher-education boards are not permitted to adopt directives except in open, public meetings. RCW 42.30.060 4 states, “ No governing body of a public agency shall adopt any ordinance, resolution, rule, regulation, order, or directive, except in a meeting open to the public and then only at a meeting, the date of which is fixed by law or rule, or at a meeting of which notice has been given according to the provisions of this chapter. Any action taken at meetings failing to comply with the provisions of this subsection shall be null and void.” RCW 42.30.020 5 clarifies that “public agency” includes educational institutions. President Wohlpart stated in his January 20 email 6 to all faculty and in his January 23 campus forum to have received a specific directive from the Board to rewrite the Faculty Code using a team of three administrators and three faculty. He indicated this directive
1 See January 14, 2026 Faculty Senate draft meeting minutes 2 See Faculty Code rewrite survey results 3 See RCW 42.30.060 4 See RCW 42.30.060 5 See RCW 42.30.020 6 See Email from President to all faculty on January 20, 2026
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