Cougster is a site for WSU students, Alumni, and others
connected to WSU to share information and express their opinions.
What are some of the specific objectives of Cougster.com?
One of the specific objectives of Cougster is to encourage
students not to take administrators’ word on school related issues. We want
students to get the actual documents and full statistics for themselves and
then decide. Sometimes administrators will give out facts that while
technically true are sometimes misleading and do not give the full picture.
For example WSU Athletics will often say that student
athletes have a slightly higher cumulative G.P.A than WSU students as a whole.
While this may be true the two most prominent WSU teams, men’s football and
men’s basketball do not have higher G.P.As Check out the numbers in the
Cougster Files in WSU Sports. Now the it is a matter of opinion and debate if
the G.P.A’s of those teams is high enough but we think that WSU students and
everyone else should have the whole picture, not just be feed select info that
certain administrators or departments want to highlight.
How do I get information and statistics that the school doesn’t readily provide?
Well one way is to make a public disclosure or information request. Any state agency, including WSU, is required to give you most information you request. There are a few exceptions. Most agencies will have a specific office and person/s that public information request are sent to. For WSU it is the Office of Procedure, Records, and Forms lead by Director Ralph Jenks. You can email your request to the office at:
or to him at Director Jenks at:
When I make a public information request what should I write?
We suggest you be polite, specific on what you want, and ask for documents to be provided in electronic format if possible. For example don’t just ask for all the documents on say the College of Business if you are looking to find out how much the College of Business spends on travel. Ask specifically for the travel budget and document on the number of trips taken by College of Business faculty and staff.
Do you have an example of a Public Information Request? Here it is and yes you can copy it if you want. (Date)
Linda Nelson Records Officer Office of Procedures, Records, and Forms WSU
Dear Ms. Nelson:
This is a request for information on incident reports filed by Residence Life staff for each residence hall. These reports are usually filed online by staff members and when filed they pick a category that the report falls under such as harassment, disturbance, etc. I am seeking information on how many reports were filed broken down by type of incident, specific residence hall, and month. For example there were 15 reports of harassments in Waller Hall in September ’05. I request this data for the 2005-06 school year and for August and September of this year. I am not seeking the actual reports.
I also request data on the number of residents living in each residence hall broken down by gender at the start of fall semester ’05, spring semester ’06, and fall semester ’06.
Please provide this information in an electronic format such as an excel spreadsheet if possible.
If you have any questions please email me at: (your email)
Thanks for your time in this matter.
(your name)
What if I am refused the information I request? First politely request they mail you a letter stating the reason for denying your request. See if the reasons that they give are allowed under Washington State Law Public Disclosure Law. If you think the agency does not have a valid reason then send them a polite letter point out this fact and be persistent. If you have problems email us, we can give you our thoughts based on our experience.
What are the Cougster Files? The Cougster Files are documents and files that are usually not readily available that we make readily available. We strongly encourage people to add to Cougster files if they have something that WSU students would benefit by knowing about. Email
if you have something you want to share.
