According to CWU Provost Katherine Frank, 92 faculty members are registered to attend commencement

Concerns over the low number was discussed amongst faculty senate members on May 1 at the faculty senate meeting in Barge Hall 412. Frank said the number is very disappointing for a college that prides itself on student-faculty connections.

International Travel Policy

The proposed international travel policy would better define what counts as university-related international travel. In turn, this would open up doors to be able to send more students abroad looking to travel for their education while making sure they remain safe.

Executive Director of International Studies & Programs Ediz Kaykayoglu said he often wakes up at 4 a.m. to check the news. Kaykayoglu uses this time to see if his abroad students are safe in whatever country they might be in. CWU sends about 230-250 students abroad.

In January of 2018, the U.S. Department of State issued travel advisories for every country around the world. They ranked them one through four, level one being the safest and level four being off limits for travel. For example, Venezuela and Syria have level four advisories while Ireland and Costa Rica are amongst the level ones.

The policy would further implement these advisories, while still requiring students to have insurance plans in place before traveling.

“Overall, the idea of this [policy] is to put the structure so that we support our programs,” Kaykayoglu said.

University Advancement

CWU’s Vice President of University Advancement Scott Wade said that for the first time ever, university advancement produced a physical 2018 impact report. The report goes into detail about performance from the last seven years, more specifically about funding they receive through alumni and donor engagement.

University advancement went from raising $2 million in 2012 to $8.5 million in 2018, according to Wade. Their organizational structure handles everything from foundation accounting to compliance.

The organization also makes sure scholarships and donor funds are going to the things that the donors intended them for. Their communications and alumni relations focus on building opportunities for alumni to engage not only on campus, but where they live as well. Wade said they spend a lot of time driving up and down Interstate 5 because he said that of the 110,000 CWU alumni, 80,000 of them still live in Washington state.

Donor relations and development focuses on how they talk to people that have the opportunity to financially invest in the institution. Once settled, they focus on letting alumni know the impact they’re making from the contributions they’re giving.

“That’s why we’re here. To engage alumni and donors to the good things that are happening on campus and provide them with opportunities to give back,” Wade said.

Development for more opportunities to give back is currently being processed. Wade said alumni engagement officers may be put in each academic colleges to help with these cases.

“I’ve had people ask ‘how can you beg for money for your job,’” Wade said. “That’s not what it feels like. We’re interested in building lifelong relationships with people with the institution.”

Motion No. 18-67

Faculty senate members continued to vote through the meeting to approve motions 18-65 through 18-81. They included a new minor in special education high incidence, a new child development specialization and a new Wine Studies bachelors degree program. The group came to a consensus on all but one, motion No. 18-67, which they voted back to the committee to discuss things further.

Motion No. 18-67 recommends assigning final exam days early to have ready on the syllabus by the start of the quarter. However, professors normally don’t know the exact day, time and location until day 30 of the quarter. Some professors were concerned about “oddball” class times and wanted to avoid getting the days mixed up from the original day scheduled at the start.

“I don’t know why [students] do this, but they schedule vacations during exam week, or they plan for their grandmother to die during exam week,” a committee member said. “We want to know the schedule as soon as possible.”