Jordan Bartlow kicks comeback into high-gear
Cheech Marin reflects in interview with The Observer
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Vol. 129 NO. 2
October 10, 2024
By the students, for the students
Wohlpart announces $26 Million Lost Due to Low Enrollment Jim Wohlpart Speaking At The State Of The University (Photo by Brandon Mattesich )
Astor Powell-Pedersen & Lee Beck News Editor, Scene Editor
P
resident Jim Wohlpart said that CWU has lost $26 million in tuition money at his annual State of the University Address on Oct. 4 in the SURC Ballroom. The directive of this event was to update the CWU community on the university’s vision, goals and how the university has and will continue to strive to meet these goals. After Wohlpart’s address, events then continued with several breakout sessions for further information on university goals. Wohlpart elaborated on CWU’s low enrollment numbers, and how they have affected the budget of the university, “For the last 20 years,” Wohlpart said, “Central Washington University slowly and gradually built towards our peak enrollment in 2017, 18 and 19. 20 years to expand our programs, initiatives, resources for all those, employees, and training them and in four years, we lost all of that work. And with that, we lost $26 million of tuition.” Enrollment is down to its lowest since 2002 according to the slideshow accompanying Wohlpart’s address, and fall-to-fall retention is down to 69%. One of the most noticeable changes for students who have been on campus before this term are the changes in dining, particularly the shorter hours. Locations like El Gato, Panini, Panda Express, and the majority of the cafés are now completely closed on weekends. Underneath all of the hour listings on the CWU website, it
$26M
Graphs via SOTU presentation on cwu.edu
says “All hours are subject to change without notice.” In 2017, the state committed to provide the money for 50% of cost of living increases for staff, as the other half was expected to be able to be covered by tuition, “The tuition didn’t backfill the other 50% which meant, effectively, we had less money to pay employees,” Wohlpart said, “What this formula has failed to understand, and what I’ve been working diligently to help our legislators and governer’s office understand is that we used to use [...] the dollars from the tuition increase to pay for the inflationary increase to goods and services, all the things we buy and pay for cost more,
Canvas and PeopleSoft, paper, pens and computers. Since 2017 we haven’t had any money in our revenue stream to pay for those inflationary increases.” There was conversation throughout the second floor of the SURC as attendees made their way to the break-out sessions after Wohlpart’s address. “I really appreciated the honesty around challenges that we’re facing,” Allyson Rogan-Klyve, the chair of the science and math education department, said. “There was no attempt to sugarcoat things or deny some of the challenges we’re facing. There wasn’t any sort of false hope or that it’s going to be easy, or that there’s clear cut answers to the chal-
lenges, because they are so complex, but having an opportunity to again be together as a whole university body sort of creates that hope that we, the people in the room, are the ones that can make the situation better.” During his presentation, Wohlpart also addressed three national challenges and how CWU is facing them. The first challenge was Climate Change and Sustainability, citing the Climate Change 2023 Synthesis Report done by the Intergovernmental Panel on
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