April 28, 2024 Updated Sun., April 28, 2024 at 10:45
a.m.
By Nick Gibson, Spokane Spokesman-Review
Higher
education in Eastern Washington will look a little different next year.
The
largest private and public institutions in the Inland Northwest are on the hunt
for new leadership. Washington State University President Kirk Schulz announced
on April 19 his intent to
retire at the end of June 2025 and three days later, Gonzaga
University President Thayne McCulloh announced he’ll be following
suit in July 2025.
The
two schools may have that in common, but the outlook for each of the
universities’ next chapters is starkly different.
Schulz’s
announcement comes as the university finds itself at a crossroads. Uncertainty
abounds for the future of Cougar athletics, budget challenges continue to
plague departments and the post-pandemic recovery has been slower at WSU than
at similar institutions.
The
university has a slate of challenges to tackle, and will need to identify the
next wave of leadership to do so, with vacancies in the athletic
director’s role,
the presidency and, until recently, the provost position.
WSU
announced Thursday that T. Chris Riley-Tillman, a former dean of the University
of Missouri’s College of Education and Human Development, will serve as the
next provost starting July 1.
Mark
Becker, president of the Association of Public and Land Grant Universities,
said the challenges WSU is facing are consistent with what other land grant
universities are seeing across the country. Finances are a source of worry as
federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds dry up, and declining enrollment
continues to be a national trend, although both issues can differ in severity
on a state-by-state basis, Becker said.
Becker,
former president of Georgia State University, said there are also challenges
specific to land grant universities, which include a growing number of
antiquated facilities that have not kept pace with the cutting-edge research
being conducted there. Many were built more than six decades ago and will need
to be replaced in the coming years.
Another
trend is the re-evaluation of how land grant universities can best serve the
residents of the states in which they’re located, Becker said. Agricultural
research, engineering developments and affordable access to higher education
were all original tenets of the land grant mission put forth by the federal
government in the 1800s, and WSU continues to carry out that work in extension
offices, laboratories and fields across the state.
As
the needs of those communities change, however, so has the conversation around
what a land grant university can, or should, do. Rural communities have a lack
of social support, whether it’s for mental health, dwindling skilled workforces
or public health, and a university’s work in the agricultural realm may not
address all of a community’s needs, Becker said.
“What
I hear, talking with my colleagues at land grant universities, is they do see
themselves as important stewards for the entire state,” Becker said. “WSU is in
every county, and they do have faculty with expertise in these other areas, but
they don’t have a funding stream to pay for this. I mean, it’s not as if
somebody is paying for them to do these things.”
Becker
spent decades serving as a professor, dean, provost and president in higher
education before joining the APLU in 2022, which has provided him with an
intimate understanding of what responsibilities and challenges the 12th
president of WSU will have to manage.
“The
mindset of all land grant institutions is we are in the service of the state we
exist in,” Becker said. “We were established to support the vibrant economy and
workforce in the state, and so that’s really a huge part of the ethos.”
Land
grants were founded with a mission to serve, he said, which means there’s a lot
of interested parties and responsibilities to address.
“You
look at the enrollment, tens of thousands of students, many thousand employees,
you run facilities, you’ve got an entire real estate infrastructure you’re
responsible for. You’ve got campus safety,” Becker said. “You’re basically the
mayor of a small city. But on top of that, if you’re going to be successful,
you’re going to interface personally, to some real degree, with the
agricultural community, with the business community, connecting with employers,
the needs of the state.”
The
next “mayor” of WSU will have a lot to manage, he added.
Enrollment woes
Fewer
Americans are interested in pursuing higher education than a decade ago, and
the next WSU president will be tasked with improving student recruitment
following a pandemic-induced enrollment decline.
College
enrollment among 18- to 24-year-olds nationwide has been falling for more than
a decade in a trend that was exacerbated by the pandemic, leading to a 1.2
million drop in enrollment among young Americans from 2011 -22. The decline is
driven almost entirely by the number of young men pursuing higher education,
according to the Pew Research Center. Men represent just 42% of four-year
college students, down 5% since 2011.
Enrollment
numbers are beginning to rebound nationally, with undergraduate enrollment last
fall growing for the first time since the pandemic, according to the National
Student Clearinghouse report published earlier this year.
WSU
has not seen that rebound yet; enrollment continues to decline post-pandemic.
The university logged a systemwide total fall enrollment of 31,607 in 2019, one
of the largest in its history, but that fell to 27,539 by fall 2022. Systemwide
enrollment at the start of this academic year fell another 3.8%.
Lisa
Keohokalole Schauer, chair of the WSU board of regents, said she believes
higher education as a whole is struggling to stress the value of a degree, and
institutions will need to collaborate to change that perception.
“There’s
a tremendous value proposition to higher ed, but I think we all need to be
really clear about, why do you need a college education,” Keohokalole Schauer
said. “And with all of the things that are impacting our current reality right
now, global climate change, you think about health, and poverty, and
inequality, and political instability, and cybersecurity threats and access to
education. I mean, there’s so many things that we need creative, big-thinking,
and forward-looking leadership on that a college degree is going to help you to
be prepared to address.”
“I
think that it’s a really clear ‘why’ statement, but I don’t think it’s really
clear to everyone considering higher ed right now,” she added.
WSU
Faculty Regent Judi McDonald said total enrollment numbers don’t provide the
full picture, adding that retention rates appear to be promising. The
university admitted smaller class sizes during the pandemic, and it will take
years for those classes to work through the system.
Another
factor contributing to the challenge is declining enrollment in the state’s
community and technical college system, McDonald said. A large portion of those
students usually go on to pursue higher degrees at four-year state schools
thanks to Washington’s Direct Transfer Agreement.
“We
didn’t get transfer students at the same rate as we would have, because the
community colleges were equally, if not worse off than us, as far as falls in
enrollment,” McDonald said. “So it’s not an instant recovery. It will be still
a few more years before we start to replace those small classes with bigger
classes at the higher level.”
Stressing
the value of higher education will become more crucial due to the impending
“enrollment cliff” that universities and colleges nationwide, whether private,
public, four-year or two-year, will have to contend with for the next decade or
so.
America
is expected to hit a peak of 3.5 million high school graduates sometime around
2025, and after that, the typical student-age population is expected to decline
steadily. The biggest contributing factor is a declining national birth rate
since the country saw an all-time high number of births in 2007, according to
the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The national birth rate fell by
nearly 23% from 2007 to 2022.
That
means a smaller and more competitive market for colleges and universities like
WSU. Becker expects state schools to avoid the worst of the impacts, but
private institutions and smaller, regional state schools like Western and
Eastern Washington universities likely see a dip in enrollment and financial
challenges as a result.
“The
biggest concern is small privates, the next concern are regional state
universities,” Becker said. “So not the flagships, not the land grants, but the
regional state universities in rural areas are also facing enormous enrollment
pressures. So relatively speaking, Washington State is in a better position,
but still, it is fewer students. There is going to be pressure.”
Becker
said conversations at the national level tend to center around what other
demographics higher education could target to bolster enrollment, like older
students or the millions of people who have some college credits but no degree.
McDonald echoed his sentiments.
“We’ve
got to look at how can we be in the education market and be more complete in
who we offer services to and be more interested in,” McDonald said. “There’s a
huge number of people in the state of Washington, like I want to say 100,000,
that have more than 60 credits and no degree.”
Associate
professor Eric Shelden, outgoing chair of WSU’s Faculty Senate, said the
university will need to re-evaluate who and how the university teaches to
address the needs of the communities the university serves.
Keohokalole
Schauer said the university is developing “aggressive” strategies to market the
value of attending WSU, at any of the campuses, or at any age. Part of that is
removing barriers that may prevent someone from attending, like providing
financial assistance or bolstering online offerings.
“We
are paying close attention to what our enrollment numbers look like,”
Keohokalole Schauer said. “But even more importantly, we are trying to
understand what the strategy is to pivot and ensure that we are the choice for
students in Washington state and beyond.”
Leading
the university as it enters this next phase will come with difficulties, but
Shelden said the value WSU brings to students’ lives, and the state as a whole,
continues to be monumental. He hopes university leadership works closely with
the community to tackle the shifting currents of higher education.
“I
think that the pandemic has fundamentally changed our society in ways that are
still unfolding,” Shelden said. “Navigating the near, intermediate and
long-term future of higher education is going to be a real, real challenge. It
demands a lot of flexibility, a lot of willingness to bring people along and
engage them. You know, a solid vision, that nonetheless, is open to change.
It’s going to be interesting.”
Budgetary restrictions
Financial
challenges at Washington State University stretch far beyond the ones the
athletic department is confronting following the dismemberment of the Pac-12
conference.
Academic
departments will face another round of budget cuts this year, for the fourth
time in the last five years. Cuts went as high as 10% across the board in 2020,
and university leaders have asked campuses, colleges and departments to prepare
for 1%, 3% or 5% reductions in 2024.
The
cuts can be attributed to a handful of issues, including rising operating
costs, declining tuition revenues and unexpected financial commitments.
Leslie
Brunelli, who took over as executive vice president of finance and
administration last May, told the Faculty Senate earlier this year that tuition
revenues and state-appropriated funding have not kept up with operating
expenses.
McDonald
said state support has been insufficient since the financial crisis of 2008,
and the differences are noticeable at the university. When she arrived to teach
in the mathematics department in 2001, McDonald said she could not believe how
much money the university could access.
“We
started getting consistent budget cuts from 2008 on,” McDonald said. “I cannot
look somewhere and say, ‘Wow, I can’t believe we’re spending that kind of money
there.’ My department doesn’t even provide whiteboard markers for us to go
teach with because we’re cut that tightly.”
The
budget cuts, coupled with stagnating salaries, have led to some frustrations
among the faculty. Earlier this year, a group of anonymous professors called on Schulz
and other administrators to step down, citing concerns over
declining financial stability, morale and enrollment.
Shelden
said that while not all faculty members share the group’s opinion, the concerns
are evident. He said salaries are not keeping up with recent inflation, which
can make it hard for the university to stay competitive in the labor market.
“I
think that the faculty, by and large, are quite dedicated to Washington State
University and to serving the needs of the state in terms of education and
research missions at the university, so I don’t see it as a wholesale reason
for an exodus,” Shelden said. “But I do think this is something that needs to
be addressed.”
McDonald
agreed, adding that the budget cuts and wage concerns are not enough to get in
the way of doing her job to the best of her ability. She said faculty have
dealt with the waves of budget cuts in creative ways while staying committed to
serving their students.
“I
do think we’re at a juncture, however,” Shelden said. “I don’t think that
trajectory can go on too much longer without having a significant impact on our
ability to recruit and retain faculty.”
One
of the budgetary concerns cited by the vocal group of professors, and in
a Seattle Times
op-ed penned by three former WSU provosts, is a perceived increase
in administrative positions and costs during Schulz’s tenure.
One
of the most evident examples for critics is Schulz’s creation of the Pullman
chancellor position held by Elizabeth Chilton. Chilton is now responsible for
many duties previously tasked to the president.
“I
think that faculty do have valid concerns, and they look for some sort of
logical reason for why things are the way they are, and this is one of the
things that gets pointed to, as well as the athletic budget,” Shelden said.
“But whether or not these are actually the roots of Washington State’s
financial issues is not clear to me at all. That comes back to, I think, our
faith and hope in our new vice president for finance and administration, Leslie
Brunelli, bringing a lot of clarity and transparency to all these issues.”
“I
think we will be able to figure this out and then do something about it,” he
added.
Schulz
announced last month a review of the administrative structure across the system
in preparation for the next academic year, a process McDonald said she believes
is already underway. She’s noticed some restructuring of the organizational
chart in recent months that should provide more oversight and clear
responsibilities for administrators, she said.
The
university also is starting a new budgeting process intended to increase
spending transparency, which gives McDonald faith that the financials are
headed in the right direction. She and Shelden are encouraged by the work
Brunelli’s done during his first year.
“From
my perspective, I like that we’re getting fewer people at the top with more
ability to look at what’s going on in multiple places,” McDonald said. “And
that seems to be the shift that’s been made.”
Searching for ‘someone superhuman’
Keohokalole
Schauer said the role of a university president is an incredibly difficult job.
To
help ensure they find the right person for it, the WSU board of regents has
tasked the national firm Isaacson, Miller with the search, and will form a
selection committee of more than 25 regents, professors, alumni, donors and
others from across the state.
The
job posting is expected to go live in September. In the meantime, Keohokalole
Schauer said a series of internal focus groups will be conducted to gather
community input that will set the course for the search.
“We’ve
been focused on how we would design a process that feels inclusive, and we’ve
been focused the last year on who might be interested in helping to move the
process forward,” Keohokalole Schauer said. “We’ve been talking about how we
would transition President Schultz, but we have not spent any time really
envisioning our next leader. That is the work that we really want to spend the
quality time focused on now.”
Keohokalole
Schauer said she’s excited about the opportunity to work with the Cougars
community to envision the next phase of the university, its new leader and how
to best serve the mission of a land grant university.
McDonald
already has a picture in mind of what Schulz’s successor should be like:
“someone superhuman,” she said.
They’ll
ideally have plenty of experience as a leader in higher education, an eagerness
to initiate change and will be able to form strong relationships within the
university and externally, with donors, legislators, other university
presidents and the community colleges where prospective transfer students are.
“Having
a president that’s really ready to engage in that change in a careful but
deliberate manner is very important, I think,” McDonald said. “I don’t want
somebody that just charges off the cliff. I equally think the same old, same
old is not going to do it for the next five to 10 years.” ”
Ed
Schweitzer, founder of Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories and one of WSU’s
largest donors, said the shake-up in leadership is an opportunity to get back
to the roots of the university and its mission as a land grant institution.
He
said he and his company are both products of land grant universities, and he
greatly appreciates the value they bring to individuals and the communities
they serve.
“It’s
so open, accessible,” Schweitzer said. “And that kind of environment brings out
the creativity, brings out the best in people and fills a very fundamental
human need to be creative, to do something of worth. And that’s what our
universities do at their best, and helping them focus on that purpose is a
tremendous opportunity that we have right now.”
Schweitzer
said he’s excited to see what the next president will bring to the table in
terms of priorities and lived experience. He added that the next phase for WSU
is also an opportunity to set aside the noise of the athletic department woes
and refocus on the academics, cutting-edge research and workforce development
the university was founded to do.
“We’d
love to have a president who thinks along those lines, who really understands
that as a president of a land grant university, that you have this tremendous
legacy laid down by these brilliant people, President Lincoln, Senator Morrill,
many other people, who made sure that education is accessible, affordable, and
of high quality,” Schwitzer said, referencing the Vermont senator who sponsored
the bill in 1862 creating land grant colleges.
“Just
an openminded, practical, down-to-earth leader respectful of students, staff,
faculty, taxpayers.”
https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2024/apr/28/challenges-loom-as-higher-education-in-eastern-was/
