In the summer of 2005, the WSU Planning Council was reorganized to ensure that all sectors of the university community were represented on this panel.

The new members of the council then began a reapprisal of the university's status by conducting an environmental scan of local, regional and national trends affecting higher education.

The opinions and observations of WSU faculty and staff were also solicited during Opening of School meetings in August of 2005.

The members of the Planning Council were guided by the aforementioned information while identifying institutional priorities for the period from 2005 to 2007.