Dear Warner College Community,
I want to take a moment to acknowledge both the headwinds we face and an important opportunity before us now.
As you know, we were asked to model a 10% reduction in the College’s Education & General (E&G) budget, which primarily supports academic departments through student tuition. I am deeply grateful for the care and collaboration departments brought to this difficult work; the professionalism and shared purpose across Warner College have been affirming. At the same time, CSU is preparing to shift to a hybrid Responsibility Center Management model, under which E&G resources will be allocated based on student credit hours and enrollments rather than prior-year funding levels. This change will more directly link resources to academic activity, making the design and delivery of our programs even more consequential.
With all of this in mind, I am pleased to share encouraging news. Thanks to the continued generosity of Ed Warner, we will have new resources to invest in our shared future. This support comes at a pivotal time, enabling us to move deliberately, not just to respond to budget pressures, but to shape what comes next.
A central focus of this investment will be a college-wide academic renewal. Through this effort, we will come together in a set of integrated committees to evaluate our programs comprehensively and leverage ongoing departmental program improvement efforts to create positive impacts across the college. The goal is not to change just for the sake of change, but to thoughtfully strengthen our programs so that they are more coherent, more attractive to students, more efficient in delivery, and more clearly aligned with the professional pathways our graduates pursue. Done well, this work will position Warner College to thrive under the evolving budget model and emerge from this period stronger than before.
Importantly, this is not solely a faculty effort. Staff expertise and engagement will be essential to designing and implementing improvements that genuinely enhance the student experience and reduce friction across our systems. This will be a shared endeavor.
Ed’s generosity will also enable us to continue strengthening our research and engagement enterprise. We will continue the Grants for Transdisciplinary Solutions to Wicked Environmental Problems program initiated by Dean Aguirre and provide support to Warner College’s research and engagement centers to sustain and expand the impactful work that advances our mission.
We are fortunate to have a benefactor who believes deeply in this College and its future. I hope you will join me in expressing our gratitude to Ed for his continued investment in our success.
In the coming weeks, we will share more details about how faculty and staff can engage in this effort. I look forward to working alongside you as we take advantage of this moment to strengthen Warner College for the long term.
Thank you for your continued dedication to our students, our scholarship, and to one another.
