Feb. 24—The Washington State University Board of Regents says it and the WSU administration has been proactively addressing issues that have drawn criticism from faculty members.

This week, three faculty members sent out a news release blaming university leadership for the school’s declining reputation and low staff morale. The news release said these sentiments were supported by 207 faculty members.

The problems laid out by the document include WSU’s falling place in the U.S. News and World Report rankings, the failure to be proactive in the face of the Pac-12’s dissolution and academic department budget cuts.

On Friday, the Board of Regents released a statement saying it is confident WSU is on the right path and trusts President Kirk Schulz’s leadership.

“The challenges we face as an academic institution are not unique to WSU,” the statement says. “The Board and the university administration have been proactively looking at these issues and positioning WSU for the future. Universities and colleges around the country are being forced to do things differently in response to an environment of record change in higher education.”

Marty Dickinson, past chairperson of the Board of Regents, said WSU in the past year has seen an increase in enrollment, an increase in annual rankings and “unprecedented investments” in the university.