WSU Shuts Down Web Site Listing Spokane Program Ideas

Tue., Aug. 25, 1998

Grayden Jones Staff writer

Washington State University has shut down its World Wide Web site discussing ideas for higher education programs in Spokane after the electronic address was published in The Spokesman-Review.

The internal documents were closed to the public over the weekend after the Saturday edition of the newspaper published the address: www.spokane.wsu.edu/apd.

The site’s address was released by Eastern Washington University faculty last Friday during a board of trustees discussion about Eastern’s role in serving students attending its Spokane classrooms.

The site contained 16 pages, including a document titled “Academic Program Development at WSU Spokane.” It was forward dated to Sept. 1, 1998, a key deadline in this year’s fight for control of Spokane higher education programs.

But Monday, visitors to the site were greeted with the following message from the dean of WSU Spokane, William Gray: “This site is now closed. It was intended for the internal communications of WSU faculty and staff regarding possible program opportunities in Spokane. I apologize for any member of the public who we may have inadvertently misled into thinking that this site was connected in any formal way to the academic process of WSU.”

State regulators have given WSU and Eastern until Sept. 1 to submit preliminary plans for serving students in Spokane.

Eastern last week released a draft mission statement and operating plan, while WSU said it will wait until Aug. 31 to disclose its plan. Both plans must be approved by the state Higher Education Coordinating Board.

Eastern has about 1,300 full-time students in Spokane; WSU has 300.

The schools have guarded closely specific ideas for Spokane programs because of a competitive desire to recruit students, collect tuition dollars and expand their political clout in Spokane. The plans are supposed to smooth out political differences between the two schools, eliminate duplication and public confusion over who offers degrees in Spokane, and free Eastern to concentrate on drawing students to the Cheney campus.

The WSU Web site had provided the only clues to what university officials such as Fred Peterson, director of academic affairs, were thinking about Spokane programs and Eastern.

WSU Spokane spokeswoman Barbara Chamberlain said officials were baffled by how Eastern faculty found the WSU Web site.

“It was an internal, working discussion,” she said. “It had no publicly disclosed address.”

The WSU documents may no longer be available to the public, but Eastern officials said they have given their copy a new address - the president’s office, Showalter Hall, Cheney, Wash.

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