Board of Trustees Meeting Outcomes

EWU President Shari McMahan sent the following message to faculty and staff on Friday, Feb. 28. 

Good afternoon faculty and staff,

Over the past two days, the Board of Trustees have held their regular meeting and received numerous updates from campus on operations, academic programs, and financial positioning. Thank you to the faculty and staff for their insightful presentations, and a special thank you to the student leadership and members of our Hockey team for joining the meeting and speaking with the Board members on Thursday afternoon.

As many of you are aware, one of the topics that received much attention was the outcome of the program review and discontinuance process that has been taking place within the Faculty Organization over the past year. On Thursday, the Board held an extensive conversation with members of the Faculty Organization Executive Team to fully understand their recommendations, their concerns, and the opportunities for improvement moving forward.

Today, Provost Anderson presented to the Board his recommendations and his process to arrive at the academic decisions. This process is clearly outlined in Academic Policy 303-35:7.2. Finally, I gave my recommendations to the Board, and the Board sent forward a motion and approved the discontinuance of the following degrees and minors:

• Bachelor of Arts in Education Studies
• Bachelor of Arts in Education in Physics — Secondary
• Bachelor of Arts in Physics (now called Bachelor of Science in Physics, General)
• Bachelor of Science in Physics (now called Bachelor of Science in Physics, Professional)
• Bachelor of Arts in Technical Communication
• Minor in French
• Minor in German

As the Provost and I stated to the Board, the discontinuance of the Physics and Technical Communication degrees does not equate to an elimination of the content at EWU. We recommend that the skills and knowledge be incorporated into other degrees and continue to support our applied learning initiatives. Additionally, with the discontinued programs, all tenured faculty members will be retained. The full timeline and rationales are available on the SRA Implementation webpage.

The Board also received a final update on the work being done within university services based on the SRA recommendations. While four examples were given during the presentation, the final action plan includes over 100 updates across all university divisions. The full, final ELT action plan is also available on the SRA Implementation webpage. Work will continue in alignment with the recommendations; however, the document will not be updated further.

I truly appreciate the hard work that our faculty and staff have undertaken to bring these initiatives together and to make positive changes for the future success of our university. As was made clear during both Dr. Bill Young’s and Vice President Barb Richey’s Board presentations, our supporters continue to look to Eastern as a place of opportunity, and excitement about our applied learning initiatives continues to grow among both internal and external communities. We are dedicated to moving forward together as a place committed to the success of all students.

In gratitude,

Shari

Dr. Shari McMahan

President

Eastern Washington University

214 Showalter Hall, Cheney, WA 99004

president@ewu.edu | 509.359.6362
ewu.edu