Nov. 19 2025 | Hannah Field | Editor-in-Chief
Starting Jan. 5, 2026, all staff members will be required to work on campus five days a week due to a request by Western president, Jesse Peters. The request excludes faculty, meaning professors, but includes all other full-time employees at Western, such as janitorial staff, advisers, counselors, administrators and others.
Any part-time staff member may review their hours with their supervisor, who will then, on a case-by-case basis, determine the best course of action for the staff member. No further information was disclosed regarding the new rule and the effects of the changes are yet to be seen until Winter term begins.
According to Western spokesperson Maureen Brakke, faculty are encouraged to be on campus and communicate with the community as much as possible. With that in mind, the university is aware of additional responsibilities connected to teaching, scholarship and service, leading to greater flexibility for faculty hours. Many professors on campus are long-distance, either via commute or purely teaching online. While the potential of that changing seems unlikely, Western in the new year will be pushing toward in-person classes more than ever before.
“This decision comes in light of WOU’s strong tradition of in-person classroom instruction, with many faculty and students expressing a preference for enhanced face-to-face learning experiences,” said Brakke.
With in-person classes as one of the main priorities of Western at this time, President Peters also requested that the Academic Affairs Division assess undergraduate courses and determine which should be offered as hybrid or fully online options. Considering previous statements from Western, it’s likely that fewer online courses will be available.
Those changes, however, have no announced timeline. The faculty will complete an audit of online and hybrid classes by the end of Winter term, which will then offer more information to the school about maintaining or altering those as online options.
With that information being gathered at the end of March, it’s unlikely that any major changes will take place in the Spring term of 2026 following the week-long break.
“Nothing will be changing immediately,” said Brakke.
Contact the author at howleditorinchief@mail.wou.edu
