Message from the Dean

Welcome to the spring 2007 semester and to the first issue of our on-line Chronicle! We believe that this new venture will find a happy medium between the largely internal paper Chronicle and ask. magazine. Of course, there are those who will miss the hard-copy versions. But our choice now is based in part on the efficiency of distributing electronically to a large external constituency at a time when we are eager to expand our contacts and to inform them of the excellent and increasingly external work of our college. We will be happy to receive your comments about the electronic Chronicle, so please contact us at libarts@wsu.edu.

On January 11, I met with liberal arts faculty in Spokane to complete the cycle of college forums on our draft CLA Plan for 2007-2012. From 3 meetings in Pullman and one each for the other campuses, plus input from the Web site survey, we gathered extensive and valuable commentary that allowed us to complete a new draft for the CLA Leadership Retreat on January 16. The chairs and directors are providing additional edits, and we will place this latest version on the CLA Web site by February 1. Please accept my gratitude for all your contributions! Attendance at the forums exceeded our expectations, and the new draft will, hopefully, fulfill yours.

At our CLA Leadership Retreat, we shared a number of contexts that relate to our planning. First, through the fall the Deans' Council continued to discuss areas of pre-eminence in research and graduate education, referred to as "peaks." There are criteria to be identified as a "peak," and a few programs in our college may meet these criteria or, with some effort, could soon meet them. Second, a discussion of more comprehensively defined pre-eminent areas has emerged in the Deans' Council. These would integrate 3 streams-undergraduate education, graduate education, and research and creative activity-to more closely align WSU with the qualities of an American Association of Universities (AAU) institution. At the request of the Provost's Office, I will serve on a team that will draft criteria for such comprehensive peaks, and I eagerly look forward to participating. This venue will allow a full demonstration of our college's contributions to high-quality instructional delivery in the GER and the major, to excellence in graduate student mentoring, and to societal impact through our research and creative activity. Thus, our CLA Plan is designed to move us from being a College of Liberal Arts to being the type of College of Liberal Arts you would find at an AAU institution.

Our plan has, as should every good plan, a budget component. In total, we will be asking for between $3.6 and $4.0 million in new funding. This amount would allow us to address instances where we are delivering quality instruction but are clearly doing so above our capacity, and to expand productivity in graduate mentoring and funded research and creative activity. Recently, the University has absorbed several unanticipated costs in roughly the same amount. WSU achieved its state enrollment contract but does not have this year the additional 500 students above contract, thus losing on average $6,000 of tuition income at a total cost of roughly $3.0 million. In the 2007-08 academic year, WSU will also fund a sweeping new tuition waiver program for undergraduates with a similar total cost. Lastly, energy costs for the University are about $4.0 million more than anticipated. While our request seems feasible in terms of magnitude, the University's budget proposal to the legislature and governor is largely earmarked. Flexibility in the new biennial budget will be available only if WSU achieves its enrollment targets.

Finally, with regard to our planning, our discussions have included numerous issues related to WSU Spokane, WSU Tri-Cities, WSU Vancouver, and Distance Degree Programs. Many of our faculty-about 25% of our total-teach in these settings. As we approach the season of annual review and third-year review, I look forward to reading of the accomplishments of our faculty and our programs in all our locations! While the paperwork is voluminous, the opportunity to read about all the fine work you produce is one of my favorite activities! Thank you for all that you do!

With best wishes,

Erich Lear, Dean
College of Liberal Arts