Washington State University hasn’t hit the “pause” button as it awaits a new leader, Interim President Dan Bernardo said Thursday during a visit to WSU Vancouver.
Initiatives sparked by former President Elson Floyd, who died June 20, are moving forward — including one that will bring medical students to the Salmon Creek campus in a few years.
“One initiative we have made progress on is a medical school, and it will have implications for WSU Vancouver,” said Bernardo, who was WSU’s provost — the chief academic officer — and executive vice president when Floyd died.
“The goal is to open in fall 2017. It’s a community-based model. After the first two years at WSU Spokane, the students will be distributed among four campuses” in the WSU system.
Update
• What’s new: Regents officially started the search for Washington State University’s next president on Thursday. Mike Worthy, WSU regent from Vancouver, will serve as chairman of the presidential search advisory committee.
• What’s next: The regents will announce the committee members at their Sept. 17-18 meeting in Pullman. A national executive search firm — Isaac, Miller — will assist in the search. The regents hope to appoint the new president by end of spring semester 2016, Worthy said.
A quarter of the students in the medical school (which will be named in Floyd’s honor) will spend their third and fourth years at WSU Vancouver. They’ll work with local health care providers that will be partners in the med-school program.
WSU Vancouver Chancellor Mel Netzhammer said that the presidential transition won’t push anything affecting his campus — which has a fall enrollment of about 3,315 — to the back burner.
“Not at all,” Netzhammer said. “Under Elson’s vision, we were given autonomy to move local initiatives forward.”
For example, “We can be much more nimble on financial aid. We can handle that on our campus now.
“We just kicked off a strategic planning process. Our strategic plan expires at the end of the year,” Netzhammer said.
As WSU’s chief academic officer, Bernardo has been a partner in those processes, Netzhammer continued. Nothing should change in the next year or so.
“As provost, he was very much in command of the university,” Netzhammer said. “It’s been a good working relationship.”
Bernardo figures that his interim position will last less than a year.
He is not a candidate for the presidential vacancy. After the new president is appointed, Bernardo said he expects to return to his prior position as provost.
Bernardo did add, “I will serve at the pleasure of the new president.”
In the meantime, WSU is not just treading water.
“The pace is faster than last year,” Bernardo said. “This interim time can be useful.”
Any organization has issues that need to be addressed, Bernardo explained, and they can be tough for a new president to take on. Maybe the new hire doesn’t have the complete context yet, or maybe the issue is not politically palatable.
Bernardo’s schedule in Vancouver included a meeting with the community advisory board and a faculty/staff forum.
Bernardo received a doctorate in agricultural economics from WSU in 1985.
