Whatever is causing the internal strife at Central Washington University, it's time university administration, faculty members and trustees pull together to get this valuable educational resource on track, without so many distractions.

Central has been a good news/bad news magnet in recent years.

On the good side, enrollment is up, a record number of degrees have been awarded, buildings have been renovated and grants have ensured support for faculty research and community outreach.

But there have also been problems with some academic accreditation (which the university is appealing).

A credit card scandal rocked CWU in 2007 after two employees in the university relations office were found to have run up more than $10,000 in unsupported, duplicated or questionable charges. The employees no longer work for the university and have repaid the charges. That incident led to the resignation of the vice president for university relations.

The university has been hit by a high volume of shifting and departures of deans, department heads, the provost and other administrators.

Most recently, faculty complaints resulted in state Auditor Brian Sonntag firing off a letter to trustees. Sonntag's letter to the eight-member board passes on allegations that he says "raise serious questions about management practices and the academic culture of the university."

Among the staff allegations are cronyism; actions contrary to university policy and faculty code; inappropriate treatment and retaliatory action against faculty members who raised concern; and administrative interference with the faculty Senate's authority to hear and decide grievances.

But Central President Jerilyn McIntyre and at least one trustee, Sid Morrison, beg to differ.

McIntyre said the proper channels for such concerns would involve new university Provost Wayne Quirk and Dennis Defa, the new associate vice president of faculty relations. Sonntag countered that those who brought the allegations to him said they did go through proper channels but to no avail, which is why they came to his office.

Morrison says Sonntag's letter may be well-intentioned, but the trustees aren't the ones who should handle the complaints.

That might be true in a technical sense, but that group can certainly step up and demand more information or an action plan for dealing with this plethora of situations that, taken together, are simply not reflecting well on the university.

Morrison says the trustees' job is to "hire the president and to encourage the president to do the best possible job." It seems that encouraging the president to get her house in order before the next president takes over would fall within those boundaries. McIntyre is retiring at the end of December.

A partial description of the board's duties is that it "establishes and reviews university policies." One good policy might be to ensure that faculty members feel their complaints will be received fairly and impartially.

Sonntag's letter is certainly unusual and may have overstepped his technical responsibilities as state auditor by passing on the complaints to the university. But he has lived up to the responsibilities of a Washington state citizen who sees problems in a public university that he thinks needs fixing.

So do we.

* Members of the Yakima Herald-Republic editorial board are Michael Shepard, Sarah Jenkins, Bill Lee and Karen Troianello.