WSU President Kirk Schulz announced the newly appointed Provost, Elizabeth Chilton, dean of the Harpur College of Arts and Sciences at Binghamton University during a teleconference on Friday.

Schulz said Dr. Chilton will also be joining WSU’s anthropology department starting this fall semester.

Craig Parks, Vice Provost for System Innovation and Policy said WSU has created a Chromebook loaner program for students to have access to working laptops.

Students will have to fill out a loan interest form and they will receive an email back with all the details pertaining to their requirements and the chrome book will be shipped to the students.

Parks said there is a new hotspot loaner program that is in the works to be launched this summer for students who need access to stable Wi-Fi services.

The hotspot loaner program will be accessible to students after they fill up a request form with the details of their current location and are approved for the program.

Parks said the loaner program is not just limited to the WSU Pullman campus but is in the works to be implemented state-wide at many locations including a tribal location.

Mary Jo Gonzales, vice president of the Division of Student Affairs, said WSU administrators decided not to refund student facilities and service fees to pay off building debts and to cover university operational costs.

“The Chinook fee was decided and voted on by students to have access to the facility and we will use these fees to keep the operations running on campus,” Gonzales said.

Stacy Pearson, vice president for finance & administration said the parking fees will be refunded for the remainder of the semester.

Pearson said students who want a refund for parking passes should call transportation services and request for a refund.

Glynda Becker-Fenter, assistant vice president for federal engagement & advocacy said Congress has recently passed a 14-billion-dollar package to financially support educational institutions. 

Becker-Fenter said that half of the 14-billion-dollar package will be used to directly help students with their financial needs. 

Brian Dixon, assistant vice president for financial services introduced a new WSU service called CARES act fund which is designed to help students to request emergency financial funding.

Dixon said students may access the CARES website and fill out an application where they will be asked questions as to why they need this emergency funding.