Addressing audit findings; moving
forward with modernization initiative
May 16, 2018 from WSU
President Kirk Schulz
Dear Faculty and Staff:
Congratulations on completion of another successful academic
year. Celebrating commencement with our students and their families as our
graduates take the next step in their life journey is always a richly
gratifying highlight of the academic year.
I very much appreciate the role that all of you throughout our
statewide community have played in making the WSU experience so positive for
our undergraduate and graduate students. Thank you!
Many of you likely have seen media reports about the results of
a recent internal audit of WSU athletics. This routine audit, which was
discussed at the Board of Regents meeting earlier this month, revealed several
areas in which improvements are needed. They include the way we manage football
game day ticket counts, use tickets for fundraising purposes, and handle
tickets allocated to IMG, the national marketing company we partner with to
promote Cougar athletics.
It is critical that we manage all University resources properly,
and we take the issues identified in the audit very seriously. We clearly need
to create a culture within Athletics that emphasizes compliance and
accountability. Athletic Director Pat Chun already has initiated the first
steps in that effort, and he will implement additional changes in response to
the audit findings.
To ensure that our corrective actions resolve all of the concerns
identified, we have requested a follow-up audit next year. We will share those
results after they become available.
This has been a banner year at WSU on many fronts. Among the
achievements indicative of the tremendous momentum of our statewide enterprise:
·
Record system-wide student enrollment
·
The highest research expenditures in WSU history
·
The awarding of the most spring semester degrees in University
history
·
One of the largest-ever appropriations of capital and operating
funds by the Washington legislature to WSU
·
Election of a faculty member to one of the national academies
for the first time in a decade
·
Completion of one of our best fundraising years since our major
campaign ended 3 years ago
·
These achievements would not be possible without exceptionally dedicated
faculty and staff. Thank you for your efforts.
That we have achieved so much while simultaneously focused on
reducing University spending and bringing revenues and expenditures back into
balance makes all of our achievements even more remarkable. On the fiscal
front, we are making excellent progress in our 3-year effort to restore WSU’s
fiscal health and rebuild depleted financial reserves at the campus, college,
and unit levels.
My thanks to all for your ideas and hard work to eliminate the
$30 million annual structural deficit from the budget. I look forward to
sharing details about our outstanding progress in this endeavor with you later
in the summer, after the fiscal year comes to a close June 30. The most current
information about our progress is posted monthly on the WSU fiscal health website.
As we continue to improve the University’s fiscal standing, we
simultaneously must address the critical need to upgrade our antiquated
financial and human resources system software—which creates its own fiscal
challenges.
As you may know, at their May meeting our Regents discussed a
financing plan to purchase a new software package for all of our campuses
called Workday. Workday is a comprehensive Enterprise Management System used by
many of our peer and peer-plus institutions. It is well suited to the unique
needs we have at a public research university with multiple campuses and
geographic locations.
I want to provide some additional perspective about this
modernization initiative and how it will impact the WSU community moving
forward.
How much will it cost?
We have budgeted $30 million in one-time costs and $7 million
annually in operating costs for the Workday system. In examining ways to do
this while minimizing the impact on the overall WSU budget, we identified 2
different loans the University pays from central resources that will be paid
off in the next couple of years. We are proposing to the Regents that once the
2 loans are repaid, we will direct those regained funds toward a new loan we
will request to purchase the Workday system. In this way, we won’t add a new
stress point to our already strained annual budget.
The annual $7 million operating cost of Workday will be paid for
via 4 sources: seed funds set aside historically for this purpose in the Office
of Administration and Finance, revenue from enrollment growth, a 0.5% tax on
payroll expenditures across the University, and internal reallocation of
resources at the vice presidential level.
When will it happen?
The modernization initiative has been underway for the past 2
years. This summer we will sign contracts with Workday and secure the needed
financing as described above. This fall we will work with campus groups on
various aspects of system implementation. We expect to begin fully utilizing
Workday by the summer of 2020.
Why now?
Like just about everyone at WSU, I have asked myself many times
why are we doing this now? Why not wait a few years until our fiscal situation
has stabilized and then move forward?
Question: What do a Volkswagen
Rabbit, an IBM PC, and our current computer system have in common?
Answer: They were all constructed in the same era!
Answer: They were all constructed in the same era!
While I feel some nostalgia for the 1970s and 1980s, I also have
no desire to work with technology from that era. Our current system is coded
using a programming language that is no longer used. We have no external vendor
support for the system, and the number of WSU staff who are able to make needed
updates is declining. In short, there is a growing risk of system failure if we
don’t significantly update our system.
Further, many units don’t have a firm grasp on their budgets due
to these shortcomings, so they have developed secondary systems to compensate.
Due to poor data and incomplete information, our leaders at all levels often
don’t have the fiscal data required to make fully informed decisions involving
resource allocations. As the quality of the fiscal data available improves, I
am confident that we will make better decisions about how to use our money most
effectively moving forward.
This fall, as we have done the past 2 years, Provost Bernardo
and I will visit each of our campuses, colleges, and other units to provide
additional updates about WSU’s initiatives for the upcoming year and to answer
your questions. We will provide more details about the modernization initiative
at that time as well. In the meantime, if you have questions, please feel free
to reach out to me
directly or to Vice
President for Finance and Administration Stacy Pearson.
I wish you a productive—and rejuvenating—summer. Please know
that I appreciate all of your contributions to the University and your
dedication to making sure our students receive a transformational experience.
Go Cougs!
Kirk
Kirk
…………
BASEBALL Cougars Fall to No. 3 Stanford in Series-Opener
From WSU Sports Info
STANFORD, Calif. – Washington State dropped a
10-1 decision to No. 3 Stanford in the series-opener at Sunken Diamond Friday evening.
WSU (15-29-1, 7-17-1 Pac-12) received a two-hit game from James
Rudkin and a solid start from freshman righthander Hayden Rosenkrantz who went
4.1 innings with four strikeouts. Stanford (41-8, 19-6 Pac-12) collected 14
hits and used three-run innings in the fifth, sixth and seventh to take the
opener.
WSU put the leadoff man on in the first three innings but
stranded a runner at second in all three innings. In the bottom of the third,
Stanford used a two-single and an RBI-triple to take a 1-0 lead.
In the fourth inning, Blake Clanton led off the inning with a
single back up the middle and later stole second. Following a walk to JJ
Hancock, Rudkin delivered a one-out RBI-single back up the middle to score
Clanton and evened up the game at one.
In the fifth, the Cardinal chased the starter Rosenkrantz with a
leadoff single in the fifth. The freshman struck out the next hitter before
giving away to the bullpen. Stanford later pushed three runs across after a
pair of walks and two hits for a 4-1 lead.
In the sixth, Stanford added three runs on four hits and added
three more runs in the seventh.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
Dillon Plew led off the game with a walk, extending his on-base
streak to 6 games
Blake Clanton singled in the 4th, extending his
on-base streak to 10 games
JJ Hancock walked in the 4th, extending his on-base
streak 9 games
Reliever Ryan Walker made his 84th career
appearance, passing Scotty Sunitsch for 3rd-most in WSU history
WSU stole 3 bases, tied for the most in a game in 2018
COMING UP
The series continues Saturday at 1:30 p.m. on
the Pac-12 Network.
:::::::::::::::::
Couple
donates $1 million toward WSU cancer research lab
Sat., May
19, 2018
By Rachel
Alexander, Spokane S-R
Willard
and Patricia Hennings looked on as Washington State University leaders unveiled
a plaque commemorating their daughter.
The Elson
S. Floyd College of Medicine on Tuesday dedicated a cancer research lab to
Tamara Hennings, who died from cancer in 2012. Her parents donated $1 million
to the college in her honor to fund the lab and a cancer research
professorship.
“When we
are looking through a microscope, imaging telomeres, or analyzing genetic
sequences, we may momentarily forget about the human face of disease, of
cancer,” said John Roll, the college’s vice dean for research, speaking from
prepared remarks. “With this gift you are reminding us all of the human face of
cancer; of the terrible toll to individuals, families and communities.”
Cancer
researchers from several disciplines are already doing research on the Spokane
health sciences campus. Those researchers include Weihang Chai, who looks at
the fine details of tumor formation on a genetic level; Bin Shan, who studies
the molecular mechanisms that govern lung cancer; and Weimin Li, who studies
cancer cell survival and growth.
Roll said
the gift would create a fund each year for researchers to get supplies or fund
small projects, allowing them to kick off research that could lead to larger
federal grants down the road.
“In this
climate of austerity, gifts like this make a huge difference in our ability to
move forward quickly,” he said.
The gift
also endows a research professor. Roll said a nationwide search for that job
would begin shortly.
The
college hopes to hire someone with expertise in the links between cancer and
nutrition, which could include everything from how different foods may cause or
protect against cancer to optimal nutritional support for people undergoing
cancer therapy.
The
Hennings family did not speak during the dedication, aside from a brief
statement by Tamara’s sister-in-law, Erika Hennings.
“From what
I’ve learned about Tamara, she lived life to the fullest, and I believe would
have embraced our efforts,” WSU President Kirk Schulz said.
“Tamara’s
extraordinary life will make a lasting difference and provide many
opportunities to future generations of Cougs.”
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