APPROVED October 13, 2016 Western Washington University Board of Trustees Meeting Minutes Thursday, October 13, 2016 1. CALL TO ORDER Board Chair Sue Sharpe called the regular meeting of the Board of Trustees of Western Washington University to order at 1:00 p.m., in the Boardroom, Old Main 340, in Bellingham, WA. Board of Trustees Sue Sharpe, Chair Chase Franklin, Vice-Chair John Meyer, Secretary Karen Lee Betti Fujikado Mo West Earl Overstreet Abigaíl Ramos Western Washington University Sabah Randhawa, President Eileen Coughlin, Senior VP, Vice President for Enrollment and Student Services Richard Van Den Hul, Vice President for Business and Financial Affairs Stephanie Bowers, Vice President for University Advancement Steve Swan, Vice President for University Relations and Community Development Brian Burton, Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs Stephanie Cheng, Associated Student President Kristen Larson, Faculty Senate President Rob Olson, Assistant Attorney General Paul Cocke, Director of University Communications Paul Dunn, Special Executive Assistant to the President Barbara Sandoval, Assistant to the President and Secretary to the Board of Trustees Rayne Rambo, Assistant Secretary to the Board of Trustees 2. APPROVAL OF MINUTES There were no changes to the draft minutes as distributed. MOTION 10-01-2016: Trustee Lee moved that the Board of Trustees of Western Washington University, upon the recommendation of the President, approve the following minutes: • Board of Trustees Meeting August 18, 2016 • Board of Trustees Special Meeting August 19, 2016 The motion passed. 3. UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT President Randhawa updated the Board regarding events on campus to kick off the new academic year including Opening Convocation, faculty and staff award recipients, Student Convocation and page 1 APPROVED October 13, 2016 “Painting Bellingham Blue”, was a huge success. President Randhawa provided updates from the 2016 Council of Presidents Retreat noting that the meeting allowed for a discussion of the long term issues for higher education in Washington. One of the highest priorities across the state is how to retain faculty and staff on campuses and student success. President Randhawa said he is looking forward to connecting with the president of University of Washington and the president of Washington State, who through land grants now have a campus in Everett and to better build those relationships and partner with them. President Randhawa said that the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) made a campus visit for the transition from Engineering Technology to Engineering. He noted that three programs are being evaluated in the Engineering and Design Program, electrical engineering, manufacturing engineering, plastics and composites engineering. President Randhawa stated that we will not know the outcome of the accreditation visit until July or August 2017 when the commission meets, but there were no issues during the visit. President Randhawa reported that City of Bellingham discussions regarding the waterfront project have continued. Leadership at Harcourt Development made a presentation to the city, Port of Bellingham leadership and Western and planning seems to be moving forward. President Randhawa said he is most excited about the potential economic development and the university’s partnerships with the city and port as the waterfront development continues to move ahead. President Randhawa reported that the 2017-19 capital projects includes a request for the renovation of the Environmental Science Building. This is a fifty-six million dollar request and is well positioned to move forward. This is the first step in a long process. Robert M. Gates, former United States Secretary of Defense and Director, Central Intelligence Agency will be the featured guest for the Bellingham Leadership Forum luncheon. President Randhawa thanked Trustee Meyer for securing the speaker. Trustees inquired about recent visits with legislators around the state and asked how that process has gone. President Randhawa stated that everyone seemed to be in good spirits, adding that there were good conversations, and he appreciated the legislator’s understanding of the value that Western adds to higher education and our graduates add to the state of Washington. Trustee Sharpe complimented President Randhawa on the high level of engagement he has had with the community and that he is sending a positive message and representing the University well. Chair Sharpe announced a 10 minute break at 3:23 pm. The board returned and reconvened the meeting at 3:40 pm 4. JOINT SESSION WITH THE ASSOCIATED STUDENT BOARD OF DIRECTORSSHARING AND ALIGNING 2016-17 PRIORITIES Trustee Sharpe welcomed the Associated Students (AS) Board of Directors and Faculty Senate President, Kristen Larson, for a joint conversation about 2016-17 priorities, opportunities and challenges and how we can collectively support and align efforts to ensure Western’s success in achieving its mission to serve the people of Washington. Trustee Sharpe said that the Presidential search and selection process prepared Western for where we are today. She noted that a lot of time was spent listening collectively to the needs and priorities for Western and creating a shared vision of Westerns future. Trustee Sharpe said that the process validated Western’s commitment to page 2 APPROVED October 13, 2016 student success, student centered learning, access, affordability, advancement of diversity, equity, and inclusion, and our commitment to shared governance. President Randhawa initiated the discussion acknowledging the importance of a collective conversation, the interest of the trustees in getting to know the institution more broadly and hearing what key constituents of the university are thinking about. He said that the upcoming strategic planning process will be an opportunity to collectively reflect, question, and think about the future and to understand Western, the history, the people, and their diverse and rich perspectives. He noted that the initial process has been guided by the many conversation he has had with the trustees, the search committee, and the community during the Presidential search process. President Randhawa said that the conversations were framed by three questions from Trustee Fujikado, what is Westerns place in society, what is the place of Westerns graduates in society, and what is our North Star going forward? He said that things to consider include how we increase student success, how do we increase our impact in the region and beyond, how we build and sustain a more inclusive and diverse community of students, scholars, administrators, and staff as we move forward in the year. Trustee Franklin inquired about initiatives that came out of the joint meeting last spring with the AS Board and the Faculty Senate president. Trustee Lee stated that they did not have any goals that were specific, but rather a commitment to increased understanding and communication. She said that the idea of having an annual joint meeting with the AS Board was one of the ideas that came out of the initial meeting. Trustee Franklin reflected on the moment when trustees realized how big a challenge it is for the AS Board to engage in the university governance structure due to the number of committees needing student representation. Associated Students President Stephanie Cheng addressed the four goals that the AS Board created during their retreat held prior to the start of the academic year. Alex Lavalee, VP for Student Activities described the first goal: increased outreach and communication with the student body. Lavalee explained that it is difficult to reach new students to let them know about resources on campus. He explained that AS Activities has created a new Facebook page called WWU Up keep that provides updates to keep students up to date on activities related to the Associated Students. Lavalee explained he is working toward understanding what information is accessible to student, how students prefer to take in information, and how to communicate and reach mass numbers of people. He said that the AS will also continue to build relationships with student publications such as, the AS Review and Western Front and use polls within the newly created videos to gather information about how students feel about a range of topics. AS Vice President for Student Life, Wayne Rocque, presented the second goal: registering as many offices as possible with the Office of Sustainability. This goal helps to create and foster a culture of sustainability on Westerns campus. He said that it is also important to ensure that the AS is as sustainable as possible in order to set an example for the rest of the university. AS Vice-President for Academics, Erick Yanzon, presented the third goal: more collaboration within the AS offices and external offices on campus. Yangon’s explained that this goal is to host collaborative events to determine what some common goals are within student groups and then share this information and provide feedback. AS Vice President Government Affairs, Bryce Hammer, presented the fourth goal: restructuring of the Associated Students. Hammer said this goal works towards re-building the Student Senate, creating more balance between event planning, advocacy, programming, attending meetings and maintaining office hours. This will create more transparency, allowing students will have better access. page 3 APPROVED October 13, 2016 Faculty Senate President, Kristen Larson, stated that making governance more sustainable is a similar goal for the Faculty Senate. Larson has created a new blog to help with outreach within her constituency. She said that the Senate wants to facilitate the student connection to faculty governance more clearly, attempting to pick committees that are most important for student representation. Larson also said that having multiple students on important committees, rather than just one student and making minutes from other committees available so students are informed and can weigh in on those issues. Larson said that the Faculty Senate Executive Council has identified five priorities for this academic year, (1) changes to the General University Requirements program, (2) campus climate in and out of the classroom, (3) access for faculty to classes and majors, (4) extended education and Western’s obligation to the state of Washington, to ensure a quality experience is being met in all of the satellite locations and (5) issues related to non-tenure track faculty. Larson stated that students choose Western for what happens beyond the classroom; the opportunity to work on independent projects, to work in the community, and to be engage in the process. This is work done by tenure and tenure-track faculty, not the non-tenure track faculty. Larson finished by saying that after hearing President Randhawa’s opening remarks from Opening Convocation, the faculty are looking forward to participating in the strategic planning process and are grateful for shared governance. Trustee Overstreet thanked the Associated Students for attending the meeting and shared his astonishment at what tasks and responsibilities the Associated Students board takes on in the Academic year. Trustee Fujikado observed that the discussion today was centered around what the Associated Students board will do which raises the bar and that is impressive. She added that it is refreshing to know that issues and priorities have been identified and students are being pro-active in addressing them. The meeting adjourned at 5:01 p.m. page 4