President James Gaudino went before the university Monday, Nov. 6, to give his annual state of the university address to the faculty and staff of CWU at 10 a.m. in McConnell Hall. Gaudino’s guest speaker, Washington Supreme Court Justice Mary Yu, spoke directly following Gaudino’s address to the university.

Gaudino, with his beginning remarks, emphasized his theme for the morning: grit. It was an homage to those, not only within our community and university who strive for greatness, but also those who continually move forward through challenging times.

“I’m growing increasingly fond of the three words that I am seeing on bumper stickers in Ellensburg and all over the state. And those three words are simply ‘Wildcat’s have grit’,” Gaudino said.

Gaudino began his address by speaking about the strength and determination within the university, with regard to both students and faculty. Gaudino also praised the university for having the flexibility to be able to look more towards long term goals, instead of short term.

The tone of the morning, after acknowledging the accomplishments done by both faculty and student, turned to two subjects; housing and the new budgeting model.

The new RCM budget model allocates funds to departments based on revenue-generated activities, allowing for funds to be distributed on a college level instead of a department level. The implementation of this new budget model has drawn stark criticism from the Academic Department Chairs Organization (ADCO) board, who wrote a letter to the Provost in June.

“Our new management and budgeting models help us pinpoint where the money comes from and where the it should go. As you know, this is our first full year in a budget and decision making system that is more transparent and more democratic than ever,” Gaudino said in regards to the new RCM budgeting model. “The work to overhaul a 125-year-old way of managing money and making decision hasn’t been easy, and dare I say it’s taking grit to do it.”

The president also acknowledged the need for housing at CWU, stating that having the Student Life staff help students find new homes on campus is like rocket science, due to the mass influx of new students.

“It’s actually been a little bit like rocket science this year, wedging every single space into a living space. We started this year, I’m told, at 104 percent occupancy. That’s a good thing if you’re running a Hilton, it’s not a good thing if you’re running a residence hall,” Gaudino said.