November 2019

Dear Faculty and Staff:

Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you are able to spend some time with family and friends over the holiday. Noel and I will enjoy an early Thanksgiving lunch before heading to Seattle for the Apple Cup football game against the University of Washington on Friday.

At the November Board of Regents meeting, University leaders reported on many of the ongoing high‑level institutional initiatives that will shape our future. I want to provide some updates and share my perspective about 3 of those initiatives.

System‑wide strategic plan

We continue to move forward with the development of our first comprehensive system strategic plan. Following … » More …

By all accounts, Samuel Martinez was a 19‑year‑old you would love to hang out with.

Sam was funny, bright, and caring. Polite. Serious. Responsible. Fiercely loyal to his family and friends. He loved sports, and he volunteered often for community service projects.

Knowing Sam’s virtues makes coming to terms with his tragic death November 12 at his fraternity house in Pullman all the more heartbreaking. Losing a family member hurts. When that family member is young and brimming with potential, the pain is gut-wrenching.

As our community grieves Sam, I extend my deepest condolences on behalf of the entire Cougar nation to the Martinez family, Sam’s … » More …

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students:

With the U.S. Supreme Court on the cusp of considering oral arguments for and against the legality of the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) policy, now is an apt time to restate the University’s unequivocal support for all students, regardless of their immigration status.

This commitment is grounded in our longstanding institutional heritage. As a land‑grant institution, we continue to proudly subscribe to the overarching principle upon which land grants were created 157 years ago: namely, that higher education should be accessible to all, regardless of race, color, national origin, religion, citizenship, or other protected characteristic. Put more simply, undocumented applicants to … » More …

November 4, 2019

Dear Faculty, Staff, and Students:

Tomorrow we all have the opportunity to exercise one of the crown jewels of American liberties—the right to vote—as local and statewide ballot initiatives and candidates for various offices are decided this Election Day.

To those who have already returned their ballots, thank you. To those who have not, I encourage you to cast your vote. Ballots must be postmarked no later than November 5 or returned to a ballot drop box by 8:00 p.m. that day.

The outcomes of elections can impact many aspects of daily life that we take for granted, affecting the quality … » More …