Vol. 129 NO. 6
February 20, 2025
By the students, for the students
VP OF FINANCE & ADMINISTRATION JOEL KLUCKING AFFECT CWU STAFF, STUDENTS, SPEAKS ON STAFFING AND ALUMNI REDUCTIONS, BUDGETS, AND MORE FROM PAIN TO PURPOSE. FROM DREAMS TO REALITY SHAQUEM GRIFFIN TALKS OVERCOMING ADVERSITY
Photo courtesy of Pexles.
Brandon Mattesich Co-Editor-In-Chief
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WU’s University Administrative Leadership Team (UALT)
and shared governance leaders recently held a meeting to plan for the 2025-2027 biennium budget. The meeting, which happened just over two weeks ago, had two main goals as stated in an email from President Jim Wohlpart. The first goal was, “To celebrate the very good and hard work all of you have done in managing a structural deficit caused mostly by lower enrollment and by how the state has funded wage increases. That deficit is about $15 million over several years,” Wohlpart said in his email. “The primary process we have used to adjust to this deficit has been to reduce our number of employees, which has strained our ability to get our work done. These staffing reductions have also had an effect on morale, but overall, we have done a good job of managing this challenge by working together.” The second goal was, “To address this question: Can we continue down this same path if we receive insufficient funding for wage increases and if the governor’s budget — which includes a 3% reduction — prevails? Or should we shift to an alternative path, and
Jackson Roberts Co-Editor-In-Chief what would that path look like?” The Observer reached out to Joel Klucking, CWU’s Senior VP for Finance & Administration, with questions surrounding the meeting. The following is a Q&A, conducted via email, as requested by Klucking. Q&A edited for length and clarity. Q: The email stated that this is the second meeting of its kind. How are meetings like this handled, and how did this second one come together almost 3 years later? A: These meetings are intended to hear from our students and employees across the university through their shared governance leadership at important moments in the university’s history. We invited leadership from faculty senate (we have 55 senators who they represent), leadership from our unions, exempt staff and classified staff (who have councils that they lead of several individuals each) and leadership from our students.
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ormer Seattle Seahawk and National Football League (NFL) icon Shaquem Griffin paid a visit to CWU on Feb. 13 to share a message entitled “From Pain to Purpose. From Dreams to Reality.” Students and staff packed the SURC ballroom as Griffin detailed his journey to the NFL and spoke on ways to overcome adversity. Griffin made history as he was the NFL’s first-ever one-handed player. He was born with a rare condition called amniotic band syndrome which led to immense pain in the left hand. Eventually, when he was four years old, the pain became strong enough that his mother found him with a kitchen knife attempting to cut the digits on his hand off. At that point, it was clear to the Griffin family that if they wanted their son to be free of this pain, it meant they had to amputate his hand. Growing up his family never treated him any different from his identical twin brother Shaquill. Griffin emphasized his family’s message of never letting him say he can’t do something and to not let his condition be an excuse or hold him back from what he
wanted to do. He and his brother would eventually find their way to the University of Central Florida (UCF) where he was faced with even more adversity there. He watched his brother play cornerback for the school as he was buried in the depth chart and even had his scholarship revoked. “My brother made a lot of sacrifices for me. My first three years of college, I didn’t play and got kicked out of school,” Griffin said in an interview with the Observer Thursday before the event. “The coaches wanted to see if my brother could do well without me. He [Coach] didn’t think football was a fit. So now I’m at home working two jobs not knowing about my opportunity to even get back into football let alone school. I’m on a full-ride scholarship and everything was just taken away.” The brothers have always been a package deal. Griffin mentioned during the event that growing up, the twins wanted to do everything with each other, whether it was playing on the same team or hoping they would one day also marry identical twins.
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