Charles Moore Chosen as Faculty Senate Chair-Elect at Washington State University

Charles Moore, chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, has been selected as Faculty Senate chair-elect, a key position that will help prepare him for the top role in the 2025–26 academic year.

Moore joined WSU in 2013 as a professor and chair of the Department of Mathematics and Statistics, a unit consisting of more than two dozen tenure-track faculty, 28 career-track faculty, eight adjunct faculty, eight staff, and 50 teaching assistances. Prior to arriving in Pullman, Moore earned his doctorate in mathematics from the University of California, Los Angeles and spent two decades as a professor at Kansas State University.

A belief in the importance of having faculty perspectives represented at the highest levels of decision-making at WSU prompted him to join Faculty Senate in 2021.

“Faculty who are actively involved in the day-to-day work of teaching students and conducting research need to have a seat at the table and be heard by the administration,” Moore said.

Each spring, faculty senators choose a chair-elect, who then spends a year preparing to lead the academic governance group by meeting with committee leads to better understand each body’s roles and responsibilities. The Faculty Senate is part of WSU’s shared governance structure.

Moore succeeds Tracy Klein as chair-elect, with Klein moving into the role of Faculty Senate chair this upcoming academic year. Klein, a nurse practitioner on the Vancouver campus, will be the first Faculty Senate chair not based on the Pullman campus.

It’s a particularly significant time for WSU and Faculty Senate, given the pending retirement of WSU President Kirk Schulz and the arrival of new Provost T. Chris Riley-Tillman. These leadership changes come amid persistent challenges related to enrollment and budgets as well as a forthcoming review of administrative structure and programs at the university.

Faculty Senate will continue to play a vital role in addressing these challenges as well as fulfilling its mission of ensuring the academic excellence of WSU, Moore said. Faculty Senate and its committees review new course offerings, programs, and policy revisions as well as convene with university leader to discuss the latest developments and ongoing initiatives at the university.

Moore has served on a number of university committees in addition to his responsibilities as a professor and department chair. In honor of Pi Day in 2022, he also helped explain in general terms the mathematical significance of the mysterious numeric expression in a WSU video available on YouTube.