Provide customer service training to any staff that interacts directly with students. Staff in these offices should greet and acknowledge students as they enter the office, even if it is just to say, “I’m helping someone right now, I will be right with you.” Lack of acknowledgement and long wait times send messages to students that they are not welcome. The answer to a student’s question should never be, “Go to our website and fill out a form.” Instead, it can be, “We have a form you need to fill out. Please sit here and do that so that I can help you if you encounter any issues.”

Fully open the coffee shops and food service on campus. It is downright awful right now. There is no reason to come on campus and stay. We used to have two coffee shop options and decent choices for food in the “food court” area of the WUC. What we have there now looks like a dystopian version of an abandoned mall. I know these things lose money, but that shouldn't matter. They improve recruitment and retention. Prospective students see our library and its coffee shop that is barely open or the lame choices in the WUC and it hurts us. Consider it part of the marketing budget! We need to do whatever it takes to make students want to come to campus and stay here.

Clackamas Community College currently has 275 students enrolled in a Spanish AAS degree program in Early Childhood Education. Early learning faculty from Western recently visited with the Clackamas to understand their needs for a 4-year university partner and Western would be a great match for this relationship. A one-time investment that allows our faculty to team-teach courses for two years (Y3 and Y4) with NTT faculty who have the language assets right now... would be needed to develop the internal capacity to serve out this partnership program indefinitely. Faculty are already working on the AAS to AAOT to WOU degree map and it matches up well... we just need some $$ to do capacity development to become a robust partner to Clackamas Community College. Imagine a bolus of 50 additional Spanish speaking students on our campus and what that might do in helping us get over the HSI threshold? Educator faculty are fully in support of this.

Re-assess educators as advisors - Commission/Research issues of poor advising and student retention. (Could be collaborative project)

Educator faculty accepted an invitation from Salem-Keizer School District to develop a Principal licensure program and we have done this work well recently submitted it to the Faculty Senate approval processes. What needs to happen next is that faculty need to convene and study together the parameters we would want to launch a Professional Doctorate in Educational Leadership to accompany this program. Administrator licensure in Oregon actually has two stages and the Principal license program needs to be accompanied by an MS degree. However, we should also seek to build an advanced leadership endorsement program (that matches with Oregon licensure rule) and is accompanied by an Ed.D. program option. One-time funding could be used to convene faculty with district partners, study professional doctorate programs, requirements, and administrative components... to set the stage for the rollout of our 2nd professional doctorate program at Western. Salem-Keizer is hosting an information night on M 12/4/2023 and have a list of 110 people who are interested in receiving information. Moving into leader licensure in Oregon is a wise choice at this time as, over the years, we would have more and more of our graduates in leadership roles who could help us with grants, program operations, research, and other innovations that will lead to stability for Western.

Centralized financial aid packaging for TRUs (maybe PSU?) while retaining customer service functions (ie. Fin Aid Navigators) at the institutions themselves.

more diverse faculty and staff, bilingual health counselors, advisors, and admissions staff. More effort on HSI, if WOU wants to receive the perks of being labeled a Hispanic institution, it needs to rethink and improve all school services—more spaces for ASL students and communities with disabilities. All of these will help with retention and advertisement.

Invest in new, effective, professional, marketing and admissions systems (e.g. software, hardware, other resources, advisory council, etc.), with a focus on current-generation youth culture, social media applications and related support services, to share the good word about WOU academic programs, create a positive PR image, attract students / college-age young folks, and increase enrollment.

Create a 50 for 50 program where individuals over 50 pay 50 percent of the instate credit cost to audit a class. Would be an age friendly move, still bring in $ and not take more of the educators time grading.

Create a “Provost Hour” where all students, staff, and faculty have a shared time each day to be able to meet. Student clubs can meet, student engagement activities can be scheduled, and other community building activities; including the possibility of eating lunch together.

Leverage OERs to reduce student costs and promote faculty research

Invest in evidence-based professional development and compensation for faculty to offer some number of large capacity courses (30, 50, 100 students, etc) that utilize high impact practices.

FOUR DAY WEEK! I hadn't thought of that but it's brilliant. Let's do that.

Our success is linked to the success at Chemeketa. Whether we acknowledge it or not... our campuses are linked. Let's build a meaningful, streamlined, and well-advertised "automatic admission" strategy to be used in AAOT seeking pathways for Chemeketa students. If we can do this well there... then we should expand this to LBCC and Clackamas as well. I recently spent an hour on campus at Chemeketa and asked their staff advisors... if you could wave a magic wand to improve the student experiences for people that move between Chemeketa and WOU... what would you do? Their answer was the same it has been for the last decade... Western needs an active presence (an office) on our campus to be regularly engaged with Chemeketa students. How many additional transfer students do we really need to pull in to pay for this investment? We need to become best friends with Chemeketa.

Relative to increasing enrollment... we should seek to develop an automatic admission relationship with Salem-Keizer School District. As the 2nd largest district in the state (and the most diverse), we could survive on SKSD graduates alone if we needed to do so. We need to be regularly in SK high schools, know their students, bring them to campus often, give the preferential admission... really roll out the red carpet. And... if we were really smart... we would do this with Beaverton and Hillsboro SDs as well. We have deep relationships in each of these big districts... we just need to leverage them well. Again, we have to be comfortable spending a bit of money to make money. We could use this 1-time investment to press out the parameters of these relationships and admission mechanisms and then maintain the investment over time through increased enrollment.

Take the 2.75 mil in a lump sum and invest it in a 1 year CD (many are currently paying over 5%).

Fully staff all call reception positions. The office is not experiencing “higher than normal call volumes” all day, every day. If this is happening every day, then we lack sufficient staff to answer the phone. Every single call that comes in to Financial Aid and the Business Office should be answered as it comes in--no matter what. Students should not get a voice message during business hours saying that they will get back to you in 48 hours. When a student is having issues with their student loan, and is about to be evicted from their home, 48 hours is too long. They need a human now.

Make Zone 2 parking free. It is insane how much students pay to park in empty lots. I was told, “Nobody buys permits anymore so we have to charge more.” Please have someone in the Business department reach out to public safety and explain how this is failed logic. We want students to come to campus and stay on campus. We want the area community to come and stay. Enforcement would be zero beyond the disabled spaces. Parking staff resources could be reallocated to other understaffed areas like the custodial services that are now done by faculty and APAs. Imagine if we could tell student tours that parking is free it WOU!

Imagine the Center for Migrant Health at Western Oregon University... that integrates our very successful Public Health degree program, taps into the Spanish-speaking capacities of our faculty in this program, and supports the service-orientation of the program, the mission of the university, and the interests of our Public Health faculty. Start-up funding could be used to press out logistics including structure, provide short-term FTE until grant funding can be secured and transition the center toward self-sustaining, and could bring in visiting faculty scholars to help us solve meaningful problems in migrant health, rural health, and health disparities in Oregon and across our region. This could be a hallmark Center for our campus in time and could help our campus deepen relationships in our communities. Want to expand it? Include mental health counseling (Rehabilitation and Mental Health Counseling and Behavioral Sciences), Occupational Therapy, and even school-based mental health issues to pick up the partnerships and relationships we have in K-12 schools.

Create an infrastructure that will enable us to identify courses where students are struggling, then triage the interventions or supports that are most needed to help those students (eg. supplemental learning materials, course redesign, etc), then implement a solution. This process needs to feel supportive and empowering for everyone involved, especially the faculty member(s) who teach the class, and definitely not punative. The funding would provide course releases for faculty and FTE for staff to pilot / play with some ideas and develop a proposal for ongoing funding if successful.

Explore the emerging trend in recent approval by NWCCU for Brigham Young University–Idaho and affiliated Ensign College, to pilot-test offering reduced credit (i.e. reduce total credits, reduce electives = less expense, less time to workforce) 3-year bachelor's degrees in select technical/applied disciplines tied to professional-industry-workforce outcomes (note: idea is to actually reduce total credits to graduation, not condensing the current total credit count in a shorter period of time or packing summer session). WOU is also an NWCCU-accredited institution. It seems reasonable to explore following suit, get ahead of the curve, and ask them to also allow us to innovate and pilot test the 3-year baccalaureate concept as well, in select program areas tied to applied professions. In turn, connect the 3-year, reduced credit degrees to idea 1 above, for positive chatter to attract new students, for truly new programming that is new and out of the box.

Not necessarily all shared services possible, however, payroll reporting and tax accounting services, similar to what USSE was providing. I think PSU has also put something similar forward.

WOU has the goal of becoming an HSI, but up until now the efforts seem mostly performative. One way of making WOU a more inclusive campus for Latin-o-e-x students it to become more welcoming to families. My idea is to use funds to translate ALL signs on campus to be bilingual signs so that Spanish speaking family members feel welcome and students feel safer about bringing their families to campus. TRI would love to take on this initiative and has vast experience and capacity for culturally responsive translation processes.

Offer advertisement for a fee to local businesses and services that students need on digital signage, walls, fences, and other common areas. Helps the local community and students connect with services.

Invest international education office and increase international student enrollment. Invest WOU students and faculty by supporting study abroad office.

I think we should really listen to our students and what they have experienced that has been barriers for them and work on resolving those barriers.

Promote Student Engagement through Game Based Learning (GBL) opportunities by investing in designing and developing educational escape rooms on campuses. A good example of this pedagogical tool is the WOU Educational Escape Room (wou.edu/cai/educational-escape-room/) that has officially started serving the WOU community this (Fall) term.

Hire knowledge management professionals to create and implement standardized trainings for institutional processes. Too many processes exist only in someone's head or email inbox.

Engage an Efficiency Expert to review our systems & processes (and then follow their recommendations).

Identify all old/standard toilets and switch to low flush-esp Admin Bldg.

Host overnight adult Summer Camps (in partnership with existing groups?) Similar to Bike MS, but maybe longer? Maybe that would be something we could partner with the other Universities on? Like some sort of Oregon travelogue?

Redesign the Banner integration for Willamette Promise in partnership with the groups that use the program. Will require a contract company with project management and programming skills.

I propose we might also consider providing one-time course releases for content area folks to develop online pathways for their degree programs that they can then launch in 2025 which would be a revenue generating use of one-time funds and would also address the current student demand, would reduce the need for faculty and staff to be on campus occupying space and using resources, but would still allow for high-quality course and program development.

Development of 3x3 pathways across campuses/institutions, to doctoral degrees at PSU/TRUs.

I would want these funds to be used to increase admission and retention by involving Latino families through the admission process. As a Latina, my parents had a big role in influencing where I would go to school. When I was younger, Cal state fullerton had parent panels for potential incoming families held in Spanish where these families would hear from other the parents of current students . My mother attended these panels and other spanish workshops and it opened her eyes to what it means to be a student and the hard work it takes. That I would be studying late and not "Messing around with boys". In addition to hearing from parent of students, she got to be in community with other families and eat our cultural foods and see us represented in the programming and speakers. I really respected that they took the time and effort to involve my family through this process and my mom was so disappointed to hear the competing school did not invite her and that the invitation was solely for me. In order for me to succeed, I needed my family to support me and understand the process.

WOU has a wonderful opportunity right now to more effectively BRAND itself and then market this brand- especially internationally- through partnerships and programs with institutions in Asia and elsewhere. Branding and partnership forming is a formal process and takes resources- including human resources- to accomplish. WOU offers things even OSU does not. Investment in branding could identify areas of distinction that other universities simply cannot compete with, and then help us effectively market our brand.

The enrollment analyst engagement identified in the list above is an urgent need we have; however, this engagement needs to be partnered with the PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT OF DEPARTENT SCHEDULERS for several reasons: accuracy, efficiency, and strategy; cost-efficiency; the optimization of the student experience; and continuous improvement, to name a few. For context, department schedulers are faculty members who possess no expertise in scheduling and are given no intentional learning opportunities for developing their scheduling prowess. Historically, it appears that WOU administrators have underestimated the complexity of scheduling and the need for specialized training for several reasons: perceived simplicity, limited understanding of the process, focus on other priorities, underestimation of impact, budget constraints, tradition or precedent, and assumption of transferable skills. Addressing this system-level failure could play a critical role in helping to reestablish the structural integrity of the university; in other words, this would be preparing WOU for the long game, as opposed to what we’re doing now in the area of year-long and multi-year scheduling. (Thank you for considering this!)

Development of discipline-specific Open Access journals.

In order to offer opportunities for meaningful engagement across student, faculty, and staff groups and draw attention to our university by boldly demonstrating a vision for how WOU serves the state, we propose investing in the Center for Teaching and Learning toward establishing a program of equity-based instructional coaching and faculty mentoring. The proposed initiative would There is an opportunity to expand on successful instructional coaching frameworks (Aguilar, 2020; Knight, 2007) by applying them to higher education with the aim of transforming the curriculum. The primary goal is to develop an equity-focused instructional mentoring model that supports faculty retention and success as well as student retention and success. This proposal could be implemented as a WOU-only initiative, or it could be expanded to include all of the TRUs. In the first phase, the initiative would build on the openly-licensed Equity & Open Education curriculum that is currently available through Open Oregon Educational Resources. Other TRUs may have already availed this training for using open educational resources or for responding to HB 2864 related to cultural competency training. WOU would lead the development of a model to sustain these key reforms and ultimately transform teaching and learning from an equity and inclusion lens. To this end, we propose the following: 1. Equity-based Instructional Coaching: We will designate an instructional mentor to develop an equity coaching cycle and create professional learning modules related to diversifying and decolonizing the curriculum. This aligns to the Center for Teaching and Learning’s objective (1) to build infrastructure to ensure that our courses are high quality and inclusive. 2. Communities of Practice: We will fund cohorts of faculty through course releases to participate in transformational equity coaching (Aguilar, 2020) cycles. Coaching cycles will include: examining the current reality; recognizing areas of impact (DEIA outcomes); exploring emotions; and creating new practices (Aguilar, 2020). Faculty will engage as a community of practice with professional learning modules. They will have the opportunity for new learning, collaboration, implementation, observation, and reflection. This aligns to the Center for Teaching and Learning’s objective (2) to ensure that faculty are equipped with learning opportunities and tools to engage in the work of diversifying and decolonizing the curriculum. Aguilar, E. (2020). Coaching for Equity: Conversations that change practice. Jossey-Bass. Knight, J. (2007). A Partnership Approach to Improving Instruction. Corwin.

Purchase reimmbursement software (and also possibly purchasing approval software - especially for travel).

Solar-powered electric car chargers. What's more sustainable than reducing greenhouse gases while reducing the cost of driving for WOU employees and students? As campus vehicles need to be replaced, the new vehicle can be electric. Students expect visible examples of universities and businesses doing their part to stop global warming. What's more visible than solar panels and electric campus service vehicles?

My actual idea is to set up some sort of tutoring service for the community that helps our education students get observation hours and costs some amount of money to access. (I would prefer a sliding scale for equity reasons.) As the former Math Center director, I got a lot of requests from local parents who wanted tutoring for their middle or high school children *and were willing to pay* but who were not eligible for our Math Center. We have students who need hours/experience working with K-12 kiddos and we have parents who want to pay. I think one-time funds could be used to set up the infrastructure for this and then it would be self-sustaining with the exception of probably paying a director to oversee it, but that would likely be less than the revenue. Students could either volunteer and get hours, or if they are work study-eligible they could be paid since we always seem to have leftover work study dollars. It doesn't just have to be math. It could be a lot of things.

Also, please, please, please update the faculty advising handbook--SUPER outdated!

Plan and host intensive 1-2 week certificate programs (overnight) during Summer.

Pool $s together to update accounting codes throughout the TRUs. Still using OUS account codes that are very outdated so a lot of research/collaboration to figure out correct codes for every entry going through the Banner FIS. Reduction in staff time needed for processing entries would be a cost savings and that would allow more staff time/resources for students.

Last year HUM put forth a proposal in Senate which was sent to the Budget Committee, regarding the adoption of some form of tuition-free Spanish classes at WOU. Has that been discussed again? Should we discuss directly with the Budget Committee or return it to Senate? This would support our efforts as an HSI and demonstrate a vision for how WOU serves the state, as there is a large Spanish-speaking and Hispanic population in the state. It would center student needs, and offer opportunity for meaningful engagement for students and faculty. Currently, due to the way in which the Gen Ed was rolled out, languages are struggling at WOU. This means that Spanish courses have basically become the domain of native or heritage speakers, and we as an institution are indirectly saying that we don't think that non Spanish-speakers need to learn Spanish or any other language.

Hire professional consultants to invigorate alumni tracking and outreach. Compile a comprehensive list of alumni, get their current contact information, and set up a more robust alumni relations program moving forward. We don't even have an alumni weekend at WOU. Homecoming is not the same thing -- WOU's legacy is not its football team. Communicate publicly about our alumni and their success stories. Fundraise for scholarships and co-curricular programming support.

Provide department / divisions with faculty buyouts for the purpose of direct recruiting, especially for smaller majors. See the Evergreen State model in this article: https://www.nea.org/nea-today/all-news-articles/how-one-faculty-union-solving-student-enrollment-crisis

Purchase payroll (and scheduling?) software.

A sustainability measure would be installation of utility (natural gas, water, steam, sewer, data, etc.) metering and monitoring systems to provide actual usage amounts for all buildings on the Monmouth campus. The goal is to accurately charge each department for their usage while accelerating energy conservation projects focused on older and less efficient buildings or department's usage patterns.

With the OTD program being at the WOU Salem Campus along with other graduate programs, my idea fits the criteria to serve the local community. These funds could be partially used to establish a WOU Salem Clinic. OT, Rehab counseling, mental health, and any future health programs. This clinic could serve as an internship site for WOU students, serve community members who are currently underserved, and provide shadowing opportunities for high school and junior high students who want to go to college for health care.

We need to stop fleecing students by making them pay tuition for non-academic credits. Psych Pack students have to sign up for unnecessary credits simply to work for the psych department. So too do Plus Team members and, I think, RA's. All the ICS classes fall under this category, as do some departments senior theses or internships. Students should not be working for a department or the university and also required to take classes to do such work. It's grossly unethical.

Develop an Esports program that generates funding through sponsorships, merchandise and the students it attracts. Over 4000 colleges have Eports teams. 97% of students play video games. It's inclusive; students from any background, physical ability, stature, gender, etc can participate. The TRUs could participate in or create their own league. Many schools sustain esports programs in Athletics with one FTE or less. If you want more detail, I have a 156 page presentation from an Esports sponsor.

Seed funding for TRU schools to make a BOLD MOVE to form a consortium that saves students and universities time & money by consolidating purchasing of course materials and learning supports, including academic technology (LMS), textbooks, and courseware.

Establish an Associates Degree for Hispanic Students. This would be free of charge by setting tuition at PELL + state assistance rate. These students then would continue on to receive their Bachelor’s degree at WOU. This would help our bid for the HSI designation.

Advertise on radio, like NPR/OPB.

Regarding engaging an enrollment specialist: This could certainly help those of us who are attempting to create the schedule each term, which feels like trying to hit a moving target. That said, there need to be revisions of the Gen Ed because the new one has tanked the Humanities and Social Sciences and the ownership. And so, hearing about "maximization" without a counterpoint of actionable support for struggling programs seems like it would exacerbate a downward spiral.

Use the money to convert all of our forms to online fillable (not just online PDFs).

A sustainable measure would be resurfacing the current Campus Recreation Turf Field to ensure its longevity and playability while adding a new NCAA Soccer Turf Field with the goal of recruitment and retention of the almost 700 students who participate in either Club Sports or NCAA sports. The goal is to reduce water consumption, chemical applications, fuel usage, and CO2 emissions while also utilizing companies that provide end-of-life solutions for an artificial turf field, such as reclaimed, recycled, and manufactured back into new products.

Build a program between WOU's already developed credit for prior learning program and WOU/TRI's already functioning statewide child care substitute program to provide WOU/TRU/PSU credit to substitutes working in programs. (builds community partnerships, workforce, provides opportunities for students, provides pathway to college for non-traditional students)

Promote dual degree pathways (for example, co-terminal BA and BFA, or BA and BS) wherever advantageous under the state funding model.

Game development degree program that prepares students for careers not only in gaming companies, but also in media, communication, marketing, and entertainment industries.

1- Can we somehow influence the state to step up and devise more distinct missions for OSU and UofO in addition to tweaking the missions of the regionals? Right now, OSU and UofO are seeking all the students they can possibly get at the expense of students and regional universities. If OSU and UofO were to raise their admission requirements across the board, it would benefit everyone. It would put OSU and UofO on a path to extreme prestige (think Berkeley, UCLA) while simultaneously serving Oregon's people by directing students who need more direct expert professorial attention to regionals rather than to ever-larger campuses/classes.

Cultural Connections: A program coordinated through the Multicultural Student Services & Programs Office designed to provide an orientation for first generation, low income, ethnic and/or culturally diverse students. This program runs concurrently with the PACK Welcome Week and provides a minimum of one session per day to give students from culturally underrepresented backgrounds an opportunity to connect with their peers and upperclassmen who they can relate to as well as staff and faculty that will provide support while they are students at WOU. This would impact both enrollment and long term retention by ensuring they connect right away and impact retention as it will ensure they will make the relationships needed to support their experience at WOU. Also, this would assist in the retention of faculty and staff as it will allow them to create meaningful relationships with students early on.

Advertise on billboards in Portland, Eugene, and Corvallis.

Maximize WCS: EAB Navigate, which is not being used (even close) to its full potential. We are spending too much $ on something that we use peripherally. Let's change that. Program it to meet our needs and offer professional development opportunities.

Improve ease of use website and portal

Plant a ton of trees for energy savings due to shade coverage in warm months.

I think WOU would be the perfect venue for some kind of mini Elderhostel (Road Scholars) opportunities. Members of the 55+ community could attend "summer camps": stay in the dorms, do art, ceramics and science classes, with hands on experiments, accounting/business class, learn to write a will... the possibilities are endless. Attend lectures on Oregon history, culture, literature, biography writing workshop, poetry writing workshop, how to use technology workshop (so many older people are dying to learn how to use an ipad), etc. Learn "survival Spanish" with a trip to a local Hispanic restaurant as the final exam.. Water aerobics, yoga, lap swim, other keep fit opportunities. Field trips to explore Oregon's history (Native Americans, geology, etc.). Shopping trip to Woodburn Outlet mall. Trip to the Oregon Coast to look at wild life, plants, etc. Nature walk in the forest to learn about fungii, bids, trees, etc. Nightly dances, poker night..... Camp could be one week duration, with possibility of adding another week or two with different complementary activities. I attended Miami University (in Ohio), and my professors who subsequently retired there loved participating in the Elderhostel classes as students. It helped keep their minds sharp and energized them. Miami's program is still going strong. WOU alumni would be the perfect place to start. And finish off the week with a banquet, during which information is shared with participants about making donations and leaving gifts to WOU in their wills.

Invest in navigational advocates/advisors training for students to understand and work wtih the various systems on campus that impact their schooling.

You can now get online degrees from top universities for less than we charge for our degrees. Yes, we want to draw students to our beautiful campus as our top priority, but we also don't want to lose students (potentially from all over the world) because they cannot complete- at least part- of their degree online. I would recommend creating "online pathways" through ALL of our degree programs, and this would take a sizeable investment in online teaching technology, IT security and support. We also need to be open-minded about potential new, online programs that are likely to be viable- we definitely don't want to silence true innovation because of bias or political reasons.

Identify and develop every shared service possible- Focus on HR, Purchasing, and FinAid

Produce a documentary film about the history of the land and university. Draw upon university archives and oral histories.

Software for handling travel reservations and reimbursements: the funds would be for the cost of consultants to identify and implement the software. (And/or the same thing for other manual processes.) These manual, frustrating processes are sapping our support staff - not just their time, but their energy and patience - which gets in the way of them serving our students, and directly impacts enrollment and retention. A kind word is often the difference between keeping or losing a student.

Offer underutilized residence hall capacity as housing, possibly for senior citizens, possibly in connection with existing academic programs like Gerontology and OT. See SOU's efforts on this.

ODE data on K12 achievement, especially in literacy, demonstrates the need for one on one tutoring for K12 students to increase their success in school. Given the number of teacher educators we have, we should create a community tutoring / literacy center that would tap into student populations and provide much needed support to school districts, that could ultimately be funded by K12 education dollars. Provide money for a partnership exploration with K12 schools and to faculty to develop and oversee. Some of our current WOU literacy faculty even have experience with this.

Identify students who are close to degree completion but have dropped out. Offer free or steeply reduced tuition to individual students for any cases where that cost is lower than the state funding reward for degree completion.

We propose creating the Willamette Valley Leadership Consortium (WVLC), a collective of leadership educators from Western Oregon University (WOU) and Chemeketa Community College (CCC) as well as leaders from the local communities within the Willamette Valley. The mission of the WVLC is to build leadership capacity within the region, thereby enhancing the economic strength of the region and improving the quality of life for its residents.The WVLC will accomplish its mission by providing the Willamette Valley community with leadership training, education, and opportunities for leadership development. The WVLC will also serve as a forum connecting current and emerging leaders from across businesses, industries, state and local governments, as well as other developmental organizations such as the Capaces Leadership Institute, allowing for the exchange of ideas to improve the organizations and communities they serve. The activities sponsored by the WVLC will act as a natural marketing tool for WOU and CCC leadership programs, thereby boosting enrollment in areas that meet both student and community needs. Furthermore, we envision the WVLC as a pilot program that could provide a blueprint for other inter institutional collaborations that would promote leader development in other regions across the state, ultimately resulting in a state-wide Oregon Leadership Consortium (OLC). Criteria this proposal meets Draw attention by boldly demonstrating a vision for how WOU serves the state. Center on student wants and needs. Boost enrollment in ways that might benefit all of the TRUs and PSU, and can improve productivity and/or increase enrollment and retention in ways that translate into longer term budget sustainability.

A comprehensive overhaul of the web pages. This system is so difficult to manage and I have heard from students that it turns them off to WOU because it feels like they do not belong.

Installation of solar panels on the Campus Recreation storage shed and surrounding area to assist with the power demand for the Campus Recreation Turf Field lights.

Create a Center for Community Partnerships to facilitate the sharing of processes, community contacts, types of partnerships, etc. across WOU and between universities. WOU faculty, staff and administrators, and I would assume other TRUs, are active in our communities providing among others trainings, interns, presentations and lectures, highlighting employment opportunities, and we are often contacted to provide expertise. However, because of a lack of resources and time, we are often not able to share this information across the campus and to collaborate with each other. For example, WOU has the NSF EPIIC grant, and if we receive it the NEH Experiential Learning grant, with a focus on building community partnerships in different communities. We could potentially create an exponential impact if all of what we (all the WOU community) do is shared and coordinated. This in turn would raise the visibility of the TRUs as a source of expertise and service to the broader community, making higher education more relevant and supported, and help WOU in particular to move beyond its “best kept secret” role.

Purchase new laptops or chromebooks for no-cost student checkout through the Hamersly Library to support first-generation student success. Currently, the library has 59 available chromebooks, 30 of which are from 2016. This is not enough to meet student demand, and all available devices are checked out by the second week of the term. The older chromebooks are also too old to funciton well and do not support student success. Purchase devices could be restricted to specific programs that focus on student populations targeted by the HECC for this funding if necessary.

Eliminate paper forms by automating forms with DocStar and signatures with AdobeSign. Contract resources will be required to accelerate the development of standardized processes and procedures for automated forms to make sure all processes are streamline and easy to use for students.

Establishing a backup system to heat water and air for buildings that need to have hot water and warm air for sanitation or health requirements. This alternative may use natural gas, so when the boilers go down we can switch quickly.

Internal "show-back" cost model for internal departments. When people are more aware of the costs of what they are asking for, even if there is not a direct charge, they are more likely to change their behavior to save money. Office moves and computer labs might be expensive, but it could also show that replacing windows saves money.

Utilize fewer buildings for classroom and office space, so optimize our footprint and reduce the need for 1/2 filled buildings to be on the utility grid.

Use some of the $s to get our systems up-to-date (eg - automated Payroll so we're not still doing paper documents for student timesheets, faculty pay adjustments, etc.) The systems may seem like they're behind the scene but would greatly reduce staff time spent on forms/approval signatures/etc. so time could be spent with and for the students. Would eliminate the issues that DMV and OR State Employment Office has gone through with antiquated systems.

Library aqcuisitions

A sustainable measure would be investing in digitization software (electronic signatures, web forms, clickwraps, etc.) for the entire campus to use with the initial goal of reducing our paper consumption and the ultimate goal of eliminating our reliance on antiquated and time-consuming physical signatures on forms. Allowing departments speed and reliability to assist students and faculty/staff with their documents and waivers.

Investment in online infrasturcture for online courses and degree pathways (OSU has most of the local market on this and we could serve more students)

We need to modernize many of our student-unfriendly paper processes...but we never have the budget to do so. Can some allocation go to this non-glamorous task?

Rooftop solar panels.

Updating internal systems - Travel software so travel forms are automated so faculty are spending less time on paperwork so they can concentrate on students.

Public art, like murals and outdoor sculptures. There are tons of mural-able exterior walls. Build community partnerships and reach out to relevant artists. Get students involved. Make a documentary of the process and show it to people.

Fix WOU's systems. I think we have been bandaid-ing systems for decades and this is no longer working. For examples, there is so much conflicting information because WCS, Degree Tracks, and Banner do not sync; facilities and UCS need to work together (e.g., temperature of the room storing the server); many systems (e.g., curriculum proposal process, faculty development proposals) rely on Camila Gabaldón (bless her heart!). I don't know how to fix these messy systems--hire someone to tear it down (like the old COE building) and start from a foundation that cannot be rocked by (figuratively) weather, earthquakes, and other natural disasters.

Reimagine landscaping practices in order to replace fossil fuel-centric equipment with eco-friendly methods. Prioritize planting hardy native plants that need little maintenance and watering.

The curriculum and faculty development submission portals shouldn't be programmed in-house. Camila did heroic work when a more efficient process than paper was required, but now it's time to utilize professional workflow software. The same can be said for implementing DocuSign for a business office reimbursements and HR sick-leave reports. We need to move beyond programming things ourself and/or emailing PDF's.

Hire professional consultants to audit systems and procedures, particularly online systems. Map user inputs and outputs in our system, and information flows. Clarify goals and identify bottlenecks. Optimize systems with user experience in mind.

centralize, consolidate, and optimize campus system(s) - don't have 3 systems/platforms/solutions when one will do - WCS, banner, and schedule planner are redundant in many ways - banner, wolfweb registration and schedule planner are redundant in ways.... allow systems to collaborate seamlessly.

According to the data that WOU reports to the HECC, from 2019 to 2021, our student FTE decreased by 18%, our faculty FTE decreased by 12%, our staff FTE decreased by 16%, and our administrative FTE increased by 15%. If our administrative FTE had decreased at the equivalent rate as faculty and staff, we would have realized an annual salary savings of over $1,000,000. While explicitly acknowledging that the work of our administrators is valuable, in order for WOU to be sustainable our administrative structure needs to match our revenue, which is tied to student enrollment. WOU could use state funding to hire a consultant in conjunctions with the other TRUs to determine how to streamline administrative overhead and/or share administrative responsibilities in order to have administrative structures that match student enrollment.

In 2011, WOU had over 6000 students and 10 academic divisions. WOU now has about 4000 students and 11 academic divisions. WOU could reduce overhead by consolidating our 11 divisions into 7-9 divisions.

From 2019 to 2021, WOU's student FTE decreased by 18%, faculty FTE decreased by 12%, our staff FTE decreased by 16%. However, our administrative FTE increased by 15%. We know that leadership matters and that administrators can be valuable, but how often are our administrators reviewed and then supported at getting better at their jobs? When many of our administrators are appointed without a process in place, how are we ensuring that we have good leadership? Administrative salaries are much higher than other salaries, becsuse they should be MANAGING and LEADING. Often, we see administrative work kicked down through use of committees or increasing service for faculty, when a leadership decision should just be made. It would be nice to be sure the high salaries and number of administrators is justified. WOU could use state funding to hire a consultant in conjunctions with the other TRUs to determine how to streamline administrative overhead and/or share administrative responsibilities in order to have administrative structures that match student enrollment.

Overhaul of our university systems that would make things run more smoothly (e.g.: one system for registration, not several that are incorrect and show different information to students). Things have been held together with bandaids for many years to try and save costs and the user experience is terrible and hurts retention.

one webpage with option for English or Spanish

Review of information held by ong time staff (we joke often that if a few key people left the university would stop functioning but yikes).

Invest in productivity software and training, to streamline processes and remove barriers to internal communications. For instance, a system where an academic advisor can create a "ticket" when a student asks a financial aid question, route it directly to the relevant office, and check up on the issue later. Or a faculty member is assigned a legally-mandated "task" like course material adoption and sees it as incomplete on their dashboard until they complete it.