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August 1999 Report Index
A critical part of the solution to the problems outlined above is having sufficient start-up funds to support the development of new programs of quality, particularly at UW Bothell and UW Tacoma, well in advance of offering those programs in the curriculum. The importance of having sufficient start-up funds available in a timely fashion cannot be underestimated in a period of dramatic growth for UW Bothell and UW Tacoma.
The operating budget is passed and signed in April (at the earliest) for the biennium beginning in July of that same year. Therefore, until the budget is set, the plans for new academic programs for that biennium cannot be executed. Typically then the first step is hiring appropriate faculty, and this process requires two or three academic quarters to complete. Because the individuals being hired commonly have current responsibilities to discharge, they cannot start working at the UW until the following summer (i.e., the second summer of the biennium). If, then, they are engaged in planning the new curriculum, another quarter is consumed at the very least. Therefore, the new program is ready for students, at the earliest, in the second January of the biennium, just when the legislature is meeting to set the next biennium's operating budget. However, this scenario, necessary in the committee's view to sustain quality opportunities for students in a period of dramatic growth, simply is not possible within the boundaries of current policy. The reason is that the April operating budget also establishes the number of new student FTE's to be served, some to begin their studies in September of that same year and the balance to start in September of the second year. Thus, the current scheme provides only a one-year time lag in preparing for the new FTE's for the second September and a four to five month time lag, at best, for the first September (Appendices 7 and 8). [Given that the new campuses are still in the process of developing new programs to serve the needs of the Puget Sound region, simply accommodating all growth by increasing the numbers of students in existing programs is not an option.]
In summary, the current application of the two-year budget process, coupling new funding and new enrollments for the biennium, will not produce, in a sustainable manner, the resources necessary for developing and offering the new, innovative programs required to meet the region's needs over the course of the next twelve years. A three, or better, a four-year funding plan, which provides the necessary time for hiring and development, is sorely needed.
The Tri-Campus Advisory Committee (TCAC) applauds the fact that the 1999 legislature did provide some program start-up costs for UW Bothell and UW Tacoma in the operating biennial budget just passed, albeit less than requested. We recommend that the specific use of these monies and the benefit (value) thereby gained be reported to all the appropriate agencies in Olympia as soon as it is possible to do so. If there is this public record of accountability explicitly demonstrating the wisdom of such investments, then legislatures of the future at least will have the evidence necessary to support and justify continuing and improving that kind of allocation. If biennium to biennium, UW Tacoma and UW Bothell could count on receiving adequate start-up costs (not immediately tied to new enrollments), then hiring some of the faculty needed to offer programs in a given biennium could occur routinely in the previous biennium. This, in turn, would provide 1) for the timely execution of academic planning and development and 2) for an appropriate distribution of faculty workload, allowing time both for renewal and for the development of the three campus university envisioned above. We recommend that such a policy be pursued.
TCAC Homepage
August 1999 Report Index
