Western Washington University

You may have heard that Governor Gregoire has recently criticized Western Washington University’s decision to address uncompetitive faculty compensation. As Chair of Western’s Board of Trustees and joined by Mr. Dennis Madsen, Board Chair at the time the decision was made, we are writing to provide some context and assure you of our continuing commitment to the excellence of Western.

The last four years have been extraordinarily difficult for Western and public higher education generally. The state legislature and the governor have cut more than half of our state funding.

Throughout this crisis, everyone at Western-students, faculty, staff, administration, and trustees – have worked together to ensure that economic vagaries and political choices did not permanently damage our institution. We did much more than simply cut budgets. We found new efficiencies, new ways to do business and new partnerships. We scrutinized every expenditure, every course, and every extra-curricular program. Our faculty voluntarily gave up contracted raises, our staff took on extra work, and sadly, some faculty, staff, and administrators lost their jobs.

Through this very difficult process of rebasing, we not only covered the cuts that the governor and the legislature made, we protected Western’s future for our children and grandchildren. With the unanimous support of the Board, President Shepard and everyone else at Western initiated reforms that allowed:

• Reallocating $2 million to reduce course bottlenecks in order to facilitate timely graduation.
• Reallocating another $2 million to those high demand (and often more expensive) academic areas that are increasingly being sought by our students.
• Shifting an additional $2 million to support need-based financial assistance.
• And, yes, openly and transparently creating the financial bases to address what we Trustees see as the greatest long-term threat to Western’s continuing excellence: faculty salaries that were uncompetitive four years ago and that, after four years of no raises, were at the bottom compared to the universities with which we compete for strong faculty.

Competitive faculty salaries have been a Board priority for over ten years and have been a top priority for President Shepard since his arrival at Western. We are all committed to never diluting the quality that our students and their families pay for and have come to expect from Western.

The Governor was right in her letter to President Shepard when she said that these were not the most politically expedient choices. But we are not politicians. Our responsibility is to protect the excellence that makes people compete to attend Western and employers compete to hire our graduates.

Looking ahead, you may be assured that the Board will never sacrifice academic excellence to political expediency.

Sincerely

Peggy Zoro
Chair, Western Washington University Board of Trustees

Dennis Madsen
Immediate Past Chair, Western Washington University Board of Trustees