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Dear Cougar Parent,
I would like to extend my welcome to another exciting academic year at Washington State University. I am delighted that your daughter or son has chosen to be a part of our academic community. We continue to strive – through new facilities, new programs and our traditional “face-to-face” approach – to provide them with the best in higher education.
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| About 230 of our students arrived on campus this fall and took their places in one of those new facilities – the Olympia Avenue Residence Hall. It is truly a remarkable place, and I encourage you to take a look when you are on campus. It is rated as a LEED™ Silver building, reflecting the “green” strategies we used in its construction, including geothermal heating and cooling, natural day lighting, sun shading devices to minimize heat load, site restoration with natural habitat and vegetation, water efficient landscaping, and use of recycled materials and certified wood where possible. More than a residence hall, it is truly a learning community, designed to encourage interaction among students as they build the social and academic networks that will help them succeed in the classroom.This project is the first new residence hall built on the Pullman campus in more than 30 years, but it is only one part of our ongoing effort to upgrade housing on campus. We are continuing to renovate existing residence halls and plan for other new construction.
An important item on the academic agenda for Provost Warwick M. Bayly and me this year is the creation of a University College. While we have improved our retention and graduation rates in recent years, I continue to hear from students that more can be done to increase student success. The University College would serve as an academic home for incoming students and for programs that support student success and retention. We don’t want students who might change majors frequently (and many do until they find the right fit for them) to fall through the cracks and not receive the best possible advising. The University College is designed to create a more seamless academic support environment for first-year and transfer students as they make the transition to life at WSU. It will not require additional resources, but will instead reorganize existing programs to be more effective and responsive to student needs.
Anyone following the news of the past year knows that resources are very much an issue for higher education, both here in Washington and across the nation. We have been moving through a economic downturn that is, in many ways, unmatched since the Great Depression. Our university has had to absorb significant budget cuts. To the greatest extent possible, we have striven to protect our core academic programs and to keep those reductions from detracting from the educational experience of our students. Through our Academic Affairs Prioritization Process, we have made tough choices about our academic offerings and have sought to make the best possible use of the time and expertise of our faculty. We believe we are well-positioned to come out of this economic downturn a stronger, more focused institution.
As the new school year began, several of our academic programs received national recognition, including the entrepreneurship and international business program in our College of Business and our writing program, which was again ranked as one of the nation’s top programs by U.S. News and World Report. Overall, U.S. News raised WSU’s rating to 52nd among the nation’s leading public research universities.
The education here goes far beyond the classroom. Please encourage your students to take advantage of all that this great university has to offer – the cultural events, the visiting speakers, the clubs and activities. Their education will be greatly enhanced as a result.
Our commitment to our students is to provide an education which will benefit them throughout their lives and a college experience they will long treasure. I strongly believe that WSU is a world-class institution with academic and research endeavors that help to improve the lives of those in our state, nation, and world.
I look forward to seeing many of you when you visit campus this year.
Sincerely, Elson S. Floyd, Ph.D.
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