Thank You

Dear WesternU Family, Colleagues, and Friends,

A sincere “Thank you” for your meaningful participation in the WSCUC Special Site Visit!

As you know, from February 15th to the 17th, the WSCUC Special Site Visit Team held individual meetings with various campus stakeholders, including the Board of Trustees, Academic Senate, Staff Council, University Research Council, the Ad hoc HR Advisory Committee, University Council, SGA, Deans Council, University Executive Operations Team, the College HEAR Officers, faculty, staff, and students.

The Special Site Visit was focused on three areas: Shared Governance, Board of Trustees, and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI).

On Friday, February 17th, based on the broad and meaningful input from our campus community, the WSCUC Site Visit Team convened an Exit Meeting and verbally shared a series of commendations and important recommendations. Although we will not receive a final decision from WSCUC until after the Commission’s June 2023 meeting, I believe it is important to highlight and recognize the information shared during the Exit meeting.

I want to particularly thank all the members of the WesternU family who contributed to the accomplishments recognized by the Visiting Team. The Visiting Team commended WesternU for the demonstrated progress and accomplishments, notably, the development of the shared governance principles in the updated Faculty Handbook, the establishment of the Staff Council, the expanded shared governance structure to incorporate the five branches of governance (Academic Senate, Deans Council, Staff Council, Student Government Association, and the University Executive Operations Team), the expansion in size, geographic representation, and expertise of the Board of Trustees, clear Board committee charters, ambitious planning of the Humanism, Equity, Anti-Racism Office, student led DEI initiatives, and the creation of the University Council, as an example of representation of all 5 branches of governance in one unified Council.

The Visiting Team also provided impactful recommendations in four (4) areas:

1. Shared Governance: The Visiting Team recommended that WesternU develop a plan for the following:
   a. Formally assessing the effectiveness of the shared governance principles, policies, structures and activities;
   b. Operationalizing the shared governance principles in the faculty handbook;
   c. Enhancing process to ensure the sharing of timely information related to institutional decisions, including the sharing of evidence and the rationale supporting such decisions; and
   d. Ensuring a culture of evidence, civility, and open communication occurs as part of all shared governance activities.
2. Board of Trustees: The Visiting Team recommended that WesternU’s Board of Trustees develop the following:
   a. guidelines identifying the institutional initiatives that require Board approval versus review; and
   b. Board decision-making methodology that relies on an evidence-based approach such as the use of dashboards and data to assess c. the ongoing performance of WesternU;
   d. assure Board independence.
3. Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: The Visiting Team recommended that WesternU perform the following:
   a. prioritize and adequately fund the WISDOM plan; including the recruitment and retention of faculty and students and on-time graduation of students, programmatic of the plan, student outcome, and assessment of the effectiveness of DEI programs.
4. Human Resources: The Visiting Team added a fourth recommendation in the area of Human Resources and recommended that WesternU perform the following:
   a. accelerate the plan to develop a fully functioning and adequately staffed Human resources office;
   b. implement the Human Resources strategic plan; and
   c. develop a process for the management of Human Resources complaints that allows for fair response times.

I want to emphasize my strong commitment to addressing recommendations from the WSCUC Visiting Team in a systematic and organized way. Over the coming weeks, I will consult with the appropriate campus stakeholders to begin the development of a framework that will best position WesternU for success in each area.

Please anticipate future periodic updates on our progress and development towards these goals. Additionally, in the interim, I invite your input, as important campus community members, on potential strategies approaches, and ideas that can be practically implemented by WesternU, in the short-term, mid-term, or long-term.

Thank you again for your hard work, extraordinary dedication, and loyalty to WesternU, and specifically to your earnest commitment to “roll up our sleeves” and unite as a team to ensure success in the process of realizing our objectives outlined above!

My very warmest regards,
Robin