Fall 2021 town hall series kicks off Sept. 8

Campuses, alongside several colleges and departments are slated to hold virtual town halls throughout the fall semester, beginning this week with WSU Everett.

The traditional annual series provides faculty, staff and students throughout the WSU system with the opportunity to hear from and engage with university leaders.

The first town hall is set for the Everett campus and will begin at 1 p.m. Sept. 8. As with all of this year’s town halls, the event will be broadcast as a Zoom webinar.

New format

This year’s event includes a change in the traditional format. In advance of the scheduled town halls, participants are asked to view a 20-minute recorded presentation featuring WSU President Kirk Schulz and Provost and Executive Vice President and Pullman Chancellor Designate Elizabeth Chilton sharing WSU’s significant advancements, achievements and developments made by the university in the last year.

The launch of the new Workday system as well as updates on WSU’s fiscal health, enrollment and philanthropy are discussed. There’s also an overview of the university’s expanding research portfolio and its efforts to better meet diversity, equity and inclusion needs. WSU efforts to manage budget and other challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic also are highlighted.

Viewers also will notice the video, embedded below, kicks off the with WSU’s new commercial, which will be featured during televised sporting events on the PAC-12 network.

By providing the recorded WSU system overview for viewing in advance, it allows more time to focus on topics of greatest interest to the campus, college or department being hosted at each specific town hall. It also provides more time for questions and answers.

Members of the WSU community have the opportunity to submit questions ahead of each town hall by filling out an online form.

WSU Spokane will host town halls for each of its three colleges as well as a general event for the entire campus community. More details will be announced prior to the event. WSU Vancouver will also notify its community of the time of its town hall in the near future.