February 26, 2025

Written by: Sadie Latimer | News Editor

Western prides itself on its campus community, where students are supported and uplifted. Part of that support comes from in-person classes, with small class sizes and personalized experiences for students. 

Western’s provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Jose Coll is leading the charge in reducing the amount of online classes offered at Western in favor of in-person instruction. He created a working committee — the Undergraduate Course Modality Task Force — to conduct research and ultimately recommend what percentage of courses should be taught online. 

The task force is being led by Chelle Batchelor, dean of library and academic innovation. 

According to Batchelor, “The task force is currently in the process of gathering information to inform the recommendation we have been asked to present to the provost and Faculty Senate in spring term.” 

Fall and Winter terms were dedicated to determining what would be best for students when it comes to online classes. The task force will share their findings in the Spring term, which will help the university move forward with the change.

The task force is concentrating on all aspects of online learning. “The recommendation of the committee will consider all modalities with an online component: online asynchronous, online synchronous (Zoom classes) and hybrid,” Batchelor stated. 

As of now, the task force isn’t focusing on the fully online majors, such as the ASL interpreting program. The provost’s goal is to limit first-year students to only in-person classes starting Fall 2025 unless their declared major is fully online. 

This potential decision will only affect the mode of the coursework, and won’t result in faculty cuts. “Teaching a course in person requires the same amount of FTE as teaching a course online,” according to Batchelor. FTE — full-time equivalence — indicates and measures the workload of faculty.

The potential reduction in online courses has been one focal point of the Faculty Senate, which is made up of representatives from the different departments at Western.

“In the December meeting of the Faculty Senate, faculty discussed concerns about program needs, student needs, student engagement and success, and faculty representation on the task force,” Batchelor stated. “After that meeting, Faculty Senate identified a faculty member to serve on the task force.”

Not only has the task force started working more closely with the faculty, but they have also begun to work with ASWOU in order to engage with Western’s students. Specifically, they are working with Senate President Maggie Bartosovsky and Senator Briana McNeel to bridge the gap between the committee and Western’s students. 

Batchelor and the committee are also reaching out to students through Wolfie, the chatbot that sends messages to the student body. Wolfie’s text was sent out Feb. 17. The text also included a short survey that students are encouraged to complete. 

The survey and other student input is important for making sure that the university’s decision reflects the needs and wants of all students. 

Any decision of the university comes with concerns and opinions from Western’s community. Some students are concerned with how class availability will be affected. Students with full-time jobs are concerned with how they will fit in-person classes into their busy schedules. These concerns are being addressed by the task force, and it is up to them and the university to identify solutions that will benefit the students and the community.

“Over and over and over, I hear comments from students about how important the WOU community is to their success,” President Jesse Peters stated in his report during a Board of Trustees meeting. “And when they talk about it, they talk about being physically here on campus and interacting with peers and faculty and staff. Whatever the college experience is, it simply can’t be replicated on Zoom. And the strength of Western has always been, it seems to me, the way that the campus functions to support students and build community. I will continue to focus on restoring our campus to the physically present, active and engaged community it was before the pandemic.”

The COVID-19 pandemic was a major setback for many schools, including Western, and it will be difficult to rebuild the in-person community to what it was previously. President Peters, Provost Coll and the Undergraduate Course Modality task force have a massive undertaking, but are starting relatively small with hopes to reduce the online courses that are offered to first-year students.

It remains to be seen whether or not the provost and the president’s vision of the upcoming fall term will come to fruition. First, the task force must figure out what percentage of courses should be online, taking into account what opinions the students and faculty have voiced. Then, once they present their findings, the university can come to an informed decision that will ultimately benefit Western’s community. 

Contact the author at howlnews@mail.wou.edu