WSU President Kirk Schulz will be moving out of the President’s House in early June to allow newly-appointed Pullman Chancellor Elizabeth Chilton to move in. 

Chilton said while the other five WSU campuses have had chancellors, this is the first time the Pullman campus has had one. 

“A chancellor is the chief operating officer of a campus,” Chilton said. “Kirk Schulz, as president, is the CEO of the Pullman campus. In a way, I am the COO of the Pullman campus.”

Phil Weiler, vice president of marketing and communications, said most universities generally have a chancellor who looks over the campus they work for. 

Up until Chilton was appointed chancellor, Schulz wore two hats as the de facto chancellor of the Pullman campus and president of all WSU campuses, Weiler said. 

Not only was Schulz taking the role as president for all six campuses, but he was responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Pullman campus, he said. 

“I think President Schulz felt that he didn’t have enough time to do the work that supported all six campuses when he was also focused on the Pullman campus,” Weiler said. 

When Schulz made the decision to have Chilton take on the role as chancellor, it made sense to have her move into the house, he said. 

As chancellor, Chilton will be responsible for relationships between WSU and the city of Pullman, she said. 

She will also be in charge of hosting events, and the President’s House is the event center, she said.

“It’s not just where the president lives, or the chancellor lives, but that’s where we host events,” Chilton said. “I will be living there, but it’s a university-owned property, and it’s … sort of a front door to the university.”

Chilton moving in and taking on the role as the host allows Schulz to lead events on campus and spend more time at the other campuses as well, she said. 

Schulz will be able to work around the state and do the work a system-level president is required to do without worrying about keeping up at home, Chilton said. 

“It’s very difficult to do that if there’s no one here minding the shop, so to speak, and that’s my job,” she said. 

As Schulz starts the process of moving into his new home in Pullman, he is working on updating the house he is moving out of, Chilton said. There will be some cosmetic and plumbing work happening throughout the spring. She is set to move in on June 1. 

“While that’s going on, there won’t be any events going on in the house,” she said. “It’s also a little more convenient to wait until the end of the semester because we’re all busy people right now.”

Chilton is looking forward to having the experiences of living at the house, such as being able to walk to her office and hosting events, she said. 

She said she hopes that living in the house will allow her to dig deeper in her role as chancellor and get to know students, faculty and staff better just by living closer to campus.