February 9, 2006
Legislature’s good news for UW is death or revision of bills
This legislative session has reached its midpoint, and much of the good news for the UW has been about legislation that has “died” or been amended to satisfy UW concerns. The news for the remainder of the session is likely to focus on the budget.
A bill that would have extended the student conduct code for all public universities beyond the boundaries of campus has died.
“We heard that it was likely to pass, but for some reason legislators changed their mind and decided not to pass it,” says Director of State Relations Randy Hodgins. “I think the fact that President (Mark) Emmert and Provost (Phyllis) Wise created a new task force to address student conduct in the community helped to defeat it. But at the same time this puts pressure on the task force to come up with proposals that will satisfy all parties.”
A bill to require additional disclosure of outsourcing of work by state agencies to other countries may pass, but it is likely to have exemptions for research and study abroad, which the UW requested. The UW is still working to add additional exemptions for printing and non-state funded programs.
A bill to begin to address the four-year higher education needs of Snohomish County may pass, but the funding associated with it is likely to be small. Everett Community College has requested capital funds for a building and operating funds for 250 fulltime equivalent students to begin a four-year university center program. The Higher Education Coordinating Board is also studying the four-year needs of the area and a final report will be finished next year.
“I think the community has received the message that a free-standing, independent university for Snohomish County is very unlikely for now,” Hodgins says, “and what may be more likely is a four-year presence related to UW Bothell.”
Next Wednesday (Feb. 15) the Senate will announce its budget. “When the University made its budget request last fall,” Hodgins says, “we did it knowing there would be some additional money available due to increased state revenues. But we did not know whether the governor and legislature would choose to spend that money. Now we know the governor does not want to spend much, and that the legislature is likely to advocate spending more than the governor, but not much more. So we’ve pared back our expectations.”
The UW originally requested $25 million in capital projects. “Now, we are working on only about half of our original requests,” Hodgins says, including the remodeling of a facility for nanotechnology, UW Tacoma land acquisition, and matching funds for a grant to the Department of Biological Structure for the remodeling of H wing in health sciences.
The governor supported operating funds for just one UW-requested item, the operation and maintenance of research facilities in South Lake Union. “It appears there may be support in both houses for operations support for the bioengineering and genome sciences facilities, as well as some funding for the new Department of Global Health and perhaps for some improvements in undergraduate education,” Hodgins says. “While the governor is not advocating for any of these increases, her staff have indicated she probably won’t veto it if it passes,” he says.
