Board of Regents assess WSU president

The WSU Board of Regents will review President Kirk Schulz to see where he can improve.

Brett Blankenship, WSU Board of Regents vice chair, said the board has implemented a policy to conduct a comprehensive review of the president about every four years.

Blankenship said the Board of Regents main purpose is to hire, supervise, review and oversee the president.

Phil Weiler, WSU vice president for marketing and communication, said the policy was implemented about a year ago.

Blankenship said the Board of Regents wants to do this kind of comprehensive review to see how the president can be more effective in the future.

He said the goal was to have input from different people in the WSU community by gathering their feedback and proposals for where the president could improve.

Weiler said it is also to see whether the president is fulfilling the goal of the state and not just the goals of the Board of Regents.

He said another goal of the board is to ensure that WSU is delivering their part of the land grant mission and academic achievement.

Blankenship said Kevin Reilly, senior consultant for the Association of Governing Boards consulting, was hired to help review the president.

He said Reilly served as the president of the University of Wisconsin, which has a similar structure compared to the WSU system.

Blankenship said Reilly will interview various stakeholders such as academic deans, the president’s cabinet, current and former faculty leadership, current and former leaders from the Administrative Professional Advisory Council, cross sections of regents professors, current and former student leaders, selected donors and alumni, and some external community leaders.

He said Reilly’s experience and expertise of being in a position similar to Schulz would be valuable, which is why he was chosen to help with the assessment.

Blankenship said the information will then be presented to the board, which will use the information given to guide the president to set and achieve goals for WSU.

WSU has a statewide presence through the land grant WSU mission, Weiler said. The university is supposed to serve the campus and the communities across the state to improve economic well-being.

Weiler said the board met with several other consultants but selected Reilly after meeting with him in Vancouver around Nov. 14, 2019.

In February there will be a draft assessment and the final report will go to the board chair in April, he said.

Weiler said the Board of Regents will publicly discuss the final comprehensive assessment in their retreat in June.