WSU Regents Discuss Presidential Search Criteria

PULLMAN, Wash. — The Washington State University Board of Regents Friday approved a
supplemental budget request including a salary retention pool and funding for the Spokane
Health Sciences Initiative.
The regents also ratified the committee and principles for the search to replace long-time
President Samuel H. Smith and took a first look at the draft position description the committee
will use. They also approved changes in Pullman campus parking fees starting next year and
authorized a 5 percent salary increase for President Smith for this current fiscal year.
WSU will ask the Legislature next year for $1.7 million dollars for the 2000-2001 fiscal year to
help retain the faculty, administrative staff and graduate assistants the university is most likely
to lose. The state’s public universities received retention pools for the first year of biennium, but
not the second, to deal with noncompetitive salary levels in comparison to peer institutions
around the country.
The university also will request approximately $1 million for a streamlined Spokane Health
Sciences Initiative. The initiative involves partnerships between WSU and Eastern Washington
University including shared courses, laboratories and libraries, and collaboration with the
community colleges and the Spokane medical community.
The 1998 Legislature mandated that WSU develop a plan for an intercollegiate health
sciences consortium. An ambitious plan was not funded by the 1999 Legislature.
The regents increased President Smith’s final year state-funded salary by 5 percent to
$162,907. They also increased the president’s deferred compensation for this year by 5 percent,
to $73,500.
The regents also gave the green light to parking fee increases for annual permit holders
starting next August. Permit prices will increase from 1.55 percent to 5.5 percent, depending on
the parking zone. The increase is needed to help pay for system maintenance and operation, and
for new facilities such as the parking portion of the new Teaching and Learning Center, which is
now under construction.
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