Educating nearly 10,000 Central Washington University students each year is a big job. It takes scores of employees to do everything from teaching students and maintaining grounds to providing security and balancing the books.

Each day brings a new challenge -- but that's not unusual for a large and complex organization. CWU continues to grow and to thrive because of our ability to address the biggest challenge of all: addressing issues promptly, fairly and effectively.

One might have reached the opposite conclusion about university management from a letter the state auditor recently sent to the university's Board of Trustees. The auditor passed on personnel complaints made to his office, even though he had not verified the veracity of the complaints or the credibility of the complainant.

Had the state auditor contacted the university, or shared any of the specific claims made to his office before firing off his letter, we might have been able to share with him the background of the complaint. Regardless of how many times dissatisfied employees resurrect it, this complaint was resolved during contract negotiations with Central's faculty bargaining unit, the United Faculty of Central Washington University, which declared the issue closed in 2006.

The university also acted promptly on another matter last winter upon learning of the possibility that employees had misused credit cards issued by the Central Washington University Foundation, an independent organization with its own rules and governing board. We revoked credit cards associated with the Foundation and then conducted internal and external fiscal reviews. We implemented stronger accountability standards recommended by the reviews and by a work group formed especially to identify steps to bolster fiscal controls.

The recent arrival of Dr. Ellen Hall to our campus brought new leadership to the University Relations division, following an interim period in which Rich Corona, vice president for business and financial affairs, restored stability and trust to the operations of the unit. As a result of all the actions that have been taken, the division is now stronger and more accountable.

A year ago, we began working on an even more complex issue involving new legislation, agency rule-making, and state and national standards for teacher preparation programs. Last fall, Central's teacher preparation program earned accreditation with conditions from the National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE), the nation's largest accrediting group. Over the past year, however, we have appealed the process used by a state review team to generate an unfavorable evaluation of our program. The state's review team recently returned to campus and reviewed programs once again. We are cautiously optimistic that the program will gain full approval later this month when the Professional Educator Standards Board meets.

In the meantime, we continue to enroll students and graduate stellar education professionals from these programs, including last year's recipient of the state Teacher of the Year award and six of the 10 nominees for that honor. This year's Principal of the Year is also a Central alum.

Our ability to address problems equitably and thoroughly has resulted in a remarkable period of stability and growth. Top-level administrators and outstanding faculty choose Central over more lucrative positions because of the close-knit campus, the quality of our programs and students, and the interesting and exciting professional opportunities available to them. As a result, CWU provides outstanding educational experiences to students of all ages and backgrounds.

With nearly 1,600 employees and 10,000 daily clients, an institution the size of Central always will experience some distractions from our primary work of educating students. But agreements among administration, faculty, staff and students include well established and clearly defined processes to address those tensions. Let there be no doubt: These opportunities have been and continue to be in place for any individuals who wish to pursue them.

The measure of CWU's success should not be whether there are problems, but whether they are addressed in prompt and professional ways that allow the university and our students to grow and prosper. The evidence on that measure is clear: Central's house is not just in order -- it is well managed and thriving.

* Wayne Quirk is the provost of Central Washington University in Ellensburg.