2026 State of the University Address

Good morning and thank you for joining us.

Uzma and I extend our warmest greetings and heartfelt welcome to each and every one of you. We are grateful to see you here at the start of a new academic year. We deeply appreciate your dedication to Western’s mission and your contributions to make Western one of the most impactful institutions in the state.

Each year, this forum provides an opportunity to reflect on Western’s progress and the people who make that progress possible. This year is particularly significant for me as it marks 10 years since Uzma and I joined Western. I find myself reflecting on a longer arc: how Western has evolved over the past decade, and how we have worked to prepare this university to meet the changing needs of our students, our state and the communities we serve.

Since arriving at Western, I have believed that our responsibility is to build upon the strengths that have long distinguished this university. That means expanding access to a Western education, investing in student success and in faculty research and creative work, and ensuring that Western continues to evolve and contribute effectively to the economic, cultural, and social vitality of Washington.

It did not turn out exactly the way I had imagined!

Collectively we created the university’s strategic plan with its three key pillars: advancing inclusive success, increasing Washington impact, and enhancing academic excellence.

Then came COVID, political and social upheavals due to national and global events, a significant downturn in the state’s revenue picture, all with profound impacts on higher education.

All of these external events have tested the institution. But the Western community learned to adapt and care more deeply about one another. Those events also reinforced the importance of good faith dialogue, transparency, and the need for respect and compassion, even more so in difficult circumstances.

We also learned that our task is not so much to predict the future perfectly. It is to shape Western to be resilient enough to meet external challenges, while staying true to its core mission, values, and priorities.

Investing in the future requires taking a long-term view. If something is important and worth pursuing, it is important and worth pursuing no matter the circumstances. The highs and lows of the past decade taught us to keep an eye on our strategic priorities. The path to achieving our goals might change or it may take us longer to get there, but the importance of advancing toward that North Star remains unchanged.

Advancing access, success, excellence, and impact is not just important for Western. It is important for the people we serve and the future we envision for our state and beyond.

Plans do not produce results, people do. This sentence is from my September 2016 address! I continue to believe in you, our faculty and staff, that you have the capacity to produce extraordinary outcomes for the institution and for our state and our society.

Despite the circumstances stacked against us, we have accomplished much over the past 10 years. This has squarely been the result of your collective efforts. Let me briefly highlight a few of those accomplishments as a reminder of what this community can achieve when we work together.

We have graduated on average about 3,700 students each year.  That’s more than 37,000 Western graduates in just the last decade who have entered the workforce, pursued advanced degrees, and contributed to communities across Washington and beyond.

Faculty research, scholarship, creative work and outreach activities have consistently outpaced that of our peer institutions. Western is ranked among the top institutions nationally for NSF Career awards and NSF RUI awards among institutions that do not grant PhD degrees.

We have started several new academic programs on the main campus and the Peninsulas, including baccalaureate degrees in ethnic studies, women, gender, and sexuality studies, marine and coastal sciences, and industrial engineering; master’s programs in social work, nursing, and electrical engineering, and applied doctorate degrees in Audiology and Education.

In addition to the renovation of Carver, there have been several additions to the physical infrastructure to support our educational programs and students, including the Interdisciplinary Science Building, Kaiser-Borsari Hall, Alma Clark Residence Hall, the House of Healing Longhouse, and the Multicultural Center.

In an environment where the utilitarian education model focused on vocational training has become the norm, Western has sustained an education model that is based on a strong liberal arts core for all majors, an approach to education that is even more critical today as society wrestles with social and political issues like polarization and extremism, or with navigating the impacts of new technologies. That commitment to a high-quality education grounded in the liberal arts is one of the things that distinguishes Western. It has helped make Western consistently recognized among the nation’s leading comprehensive universities and has contributed to our strong record of Fulbright scholars, Peace Corps volunteers, and graduates who go on to earn doctoral degrees.

So, after 10 years, I remain optimistic about Western and its future. This is not to say that the next decade will be any easier than the last. My optimism is based on the belief that Western has aspirations that are grounded in the needs of the state, the nation, and society. It is based on Western’s high quality education model built on a liberal arts foundation. And it is based on having witnessed many times what this community can do when faced with difficult circumstances.

At the same time, I want to acknowledge that the university has gone through major budget challenges, leading to significant budget cuts and loss of some positions that were held by valued colleagues, structural changes, and changes in individual work responsibilities. The unexpected drop in the first-year entering class last year also added to the budgetary challenges.  

The 2026 supplemental legislative session, despite the ominous start, resulted in a largely flat budget for Western. Nevertheless, from the state’s budget perspective we are not yet out of the woods. We recognize that we have a challenging 2027 legislative session ahead of us as the state’s revenues are projected to fall considerably below the levels needed to sustain the state’s current commitments and expenditures. Our most important priority for the session will be to make the case for holding higher education harmless, meaning no additional cuts beyond the already significant reductions made during the last biennium. We will also continue to advocate for parity in state funding for Western, a process that we started during the last legislative session.

While we need to make sure that we take the necessary steps to address the budgetary issues, I believe it is also necessary to look to the future, with an eye toward critical growth areas that will help position the university for continued success and to be increasingly relevant to the needs of our state and society.

I outline next a few important, timely, and relevant initiatives that will inform our work for the coming academic year. The changes ahead will require the expertise, engagement, and shared governance of our faculty, staff, and students. Our best decisions will come from bringing those perspectives together.

Place student recruitment and success at the center of everything. Last fall we started the Presidential Enrollment Initiative with the goal of recruiting 3,200 first year and 1,200 transfer students on a sustained basis, while maintaining a minimum first year retention rate of 80%. For fall 2026 to date, enrollment admits and confirmations are trending in the right direction and transfer numbers in particular show significant improvement over last year.

Our goal is to return to pre-pandemic enrollment levels, that is, a university of about 16,000 students by 2030. At the same time, I want to reiterate what I have stated previously on several occasions: The enrollment initiative goes beyond just numbers. It is about extending the promise of higher education to more students, meeting the needs of Washington communities and employers, and ensuring that students who choose Western can thrive and succeed.

We started the K-12 component of the enrollment initiative with the five counties in northwest Washington. For the fall 2027 recruitment cycle, we will extend the pilot statewide. It is important to note that this is more than a one-year initiative, and we are putting the systems and people in place to ensure that we meet our enrollment goals on a sustained basis.

As we expand the enrollment initiative statewide, I want to reiterate that Access and Excellence are not competing values. What brought me to Western was the university’s educational excellence, its ability to deliver high-quality education and educational experiences. You have sustained that quality over the years.

Equally important, Western’s educational values are built around inclusive access, extending the promise of a Western education to student populations that have not had access to higher education in the past. Increasing access does not mean a decrease in quality or excellence metrics. I understand the concern among many that students from the K-12 pipeline are seemingly less prepared today than previous generations. Herein lies our challenge: to increase access while sustaining quality and excellence.

We are also committed to improving student persistence, belonging, academic success, and graduation outcomes by creating a coordinated, institution wide approach that identifies student needs early, removes barriers, and connects every student to meaningful support.

Our approach will include more intentional first-year advising, targeted support for students who may need additional academic preparation, emergency financial assistance, clearer academic pathways for students admitted directly to majors, and deeper faculty engagement.

Increasing access also requires extending the promise of Western education beyond the confines of our immediate geography. The state has made significant investments over the past few biennia to expand our work on the Peninsulas.  

The next major step for WWU Peninsulas is establishing physical infrastructure that would allow us to fully envision our presence in the area. During the upcoming legislative session, our priority for the capital budget request is the construction of a new academic building in Poulsbo. Besides providing much needed space for our academic programs and support services, a Western building will allow us to further expand our signature Cyber Range program.

Expand and enhance Western’s academic footprint. Western has a long-standing commitment to developing academic programs that meet critical workforce and community needs across Washington State and the region. Healthcare represents one of the state’s most urgent and fastest growing areas of need.

Through partnerships with regional community health organizations, Western has a unique opportunity to expand its footprint in the health science area. Expanding Western’s academic programs in the health sciences will position the university to develop new programs that respond to regional workforce and community needs. A faculty-based task force, led by Provost Brad Johnson this fall, will help define the vision, scope, and academic structure for such programmatic growth, including envisioning a future college that creates a clear, visible home for health sciences at Western and identifies opportunities for future program development.

Another field of inquiry that merits institution level attention is artificial intelligence. The field of AI is developing rapidly with major implications for higher education. While AI offers tremendous opportunities to drive innovation and solve some complex problems, it also creates ethical dilemmas ranging from student data privacy to the confidentiality of intellectual property and perhaps most concerning, the loss of human connection.

This fall Provost Johnson will appoint a work group to explore the possibilities of AI at Western, how the university should respond to this disruptive technology and what guardrails are needed to ensure the technology’s effective use in academic and operational activities consistent with institutional values, mission, and priorities. The scope of work for this group will include academic, operations, and governance components; it will build on existing AI related work at Western to create a coordinated framework for responsible, strategic, and outcomes driven approach.

Restructure and enhance support systems. Western’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system is the technology backbone that supports finance, human resources, payroll, procurement, budgeting, and other essential business operations, as well as student related data essential to the academic enterprise. After nearly 30 years, the current system is increasingly costly to maintain and lacks flexibility to adapt to the changing needs of a modern university. As Western looks to the future, modernizing this foundation offers an opportunity to improve how information and business processes connect across the university.

Over the next few years, we will transition from our antiquated system to Workday, a modern, cloud-based ERP that provides greater integration, accessibility, flexibility, and opportunities to simplify and improve business processes. During the 2026-27 year, Vice President Joyce Lopes will lead the implementation process to transition to Workday.

Speaking of systems, some of our peer public four-year institutions in the state are presently exploring a change of the academic calendar from quarters to semesters. Were we to move in this direction, our preference would be for all public post-secondary institutions in the state to make the change at the same time. These discussions are still just beginning. We will keep you informed of these conversations, and we will engage you in planning for such a change if this activity gathers momentum over the next few months.

Building on our success in fundraising over the past few years, we are working towards launching the public phase of a comprehensive fundraising campaign within the next 12 to18 months, an effort that will be led by Vice President Kim Hill in partnership with the Foundation for WWU and Alumni. Last year, we raised $25.5 million in philanthropy, the best annual fundraising year for Western. Earlier in the summer, we received $10.5 million from Peter and Judith Hallson, Western alums, to create the first endowed dean’s position in the College of Science and Engineering.  

These are exciting initiatives, but also activities that will bring change to Western. Our challenge is not to change for change’s sake, but to thoughtfully transform so that the values, opportunities, and experiences we cherish most can endure and thrive for generations to come. Since the pandemic it feels that we have been in a perpetual cycle of change. We have sometimes succeeded and we have sometimes fallen short of our expectations. But I hope we have learned in this process, and we will continue to get better as we travel this journey together.

Times of change underscore the importance of our work on community building and on enhancing belongingness and inclusion, something that will continue to be an important part of our collective work. Our Chief Diversity Officer, Jacqueline Hughes, will continue to lead our efforts to build an institutional culture focused on compassion, respect, well-being, and belonging. Part of this effort will be offering several programs that create intentional opportunities for reflection, learning, connection, and engagement, including a multi-year dialogue initiative that engages both students and employees in meaningful conversations across differences.

To conclude, I want to leave you with a takeaway message: In moments of change, it is easy to focus on immediate challenges. But our enduring task is to look beyond them and envision what Western can become. Together, we will build a future that honors our legacy, embraces new possibilities, and strengthens our role in transforming lives and communities.

The past ten years have taught me that leadership is not about having all the answers. It is about asking the right questions, bringing people together to voice perspectives on important matters, listening carefully, and having the courage to move forward even when the answers are not yet clear. What I hope will remain constant amid change is our commitment to academic excellence, close engagement between students and faculty, and the belief that public higher education can and will transform individual lives while strengthening our communities.

I am profoundly grateful for the last 10 years and for the opportunity to serve Western. My work would not be possible without Uzma’s incredible support, love, and partnership. I am thankful for the confidence the trustees have placed in my leadership and for their wise guidance and counsel. I appreciate the dedication of our leadership teams and the countless ways they serve the university. Finally, I am deeply appreciative to our faculty and staff for your talent, commitment and hard work that has made Western what it is today, a high-quality public institution that drives inclusive access and success.  

Thank you!