January 4, 2007
UW hopes for ‘breakthrough year’ in state education funding
This is shaping up to be a breakthrough year for funding of higher education and especially the UW.
When Gov. Christine Gregoire announced her proposed budget for 2007-09, one key adviser commented that her “first, second and third priorities” were education, education and education.
“This budget even exceeds what was proposed by her own Washington Learns Commission,” says UW Director of State Relations Randy Hodgins. The state Legislature convenes Jan. 8 and its major business will be to adopt the state’s biennial budget.
“We are very impressed with the governor’s budget for higher education and the University of Washington,” says President Mark Emmert. “She has made it clear since the day she became governor that investing in the future of our state meant investing in the education of our children and young people. This bold budget, if adopted, ensures that Washington students will have access to a first-rate education at the UW, by helping to close the funding gap between us and our peer institutions. We’re very grateful for the leadership she has shown and will do everything we can to help make the budget a reality.”
The proposed budget calls for a 17 percent increase in operating funds (assuming the UW increases resident undergraduate tuition by the maximum amount of 7 percent each year) and a capital budget of more than $140 million.
The largest single category of increase is for UW’s faculty and staff salary and benefit increases. The governor is recommending that salaries increase 3.2 percent in the first year of the biennium and 2 percent in the second year, effective July 1 of each year for represented staff and Sept. 1 of each year for faculty and non-represented staff.
“If a budget that is close to this is adopted by the Legislature, it’s likely that these salary increases will be supplemented by local funds, as they have been in the past two years,” Hodgins says. The UW’s budget request is for a 5 percent annual increase for faculty and non-represented professional staff, to close salary gaps with competitive institutions.
The budget also recommends that the state continue to pay 88 percent of health care costs.
Gov. Gregoire’s budget provides for 1,630 new enrollments at the UW, including 530 new undergraduate enrollments in Seattle for math, science, engineering and other high-demand fields; 210 new graduate enrollments in Seattle; 480 new enrollments for UW Tacoma and 440 new enrollments for UW Bothell.
For the second consecutive year, the governor has recommended state funding for UW research, including $6.3 million for the Department of Global Health; $3.3 million for operations and maintenance of the new Benjamin Hall Interdisciplinary Research Building; and $500,000 to enhance the University’s technology transfer “gap fund,” which helps commercialize UW discoveries.
WWAMI and RIDE, the UW’s regional medical and dental education programs, would receive funds for 20 additional medical students and eight dental students. And a new “best practices” center in the School of Social Work, which will study factors affecting the well-being of foster children, would receive $1 million.
The governor’s budget targets $500,000 to improve retention rates for first generation and low income students; $340,000 to support the Washington Academy of Sciences; $225,000 for the William Ruckelshaus Center and $168,000 for support of the UW state climatologist.
While the operating budget increases are impressive, it would take until 2014 with annual increases of this magnitude to bring the UW to the average per-student funding level of its peer institutions. “People should remember that it took about 15 years to fall to the bottom quartile of our peers,” Hodgins says. “This is a great budget, and a great start at closing that funding gap.”
The capital budget request includes $94 million to fund reconstruction of Savery and Clark Halls, the Playhouse Theater and Magnuson H-Wing. In addition, the budget fully funds planning and design renovation projects at Balmer, Lewis and Denny halls. The budget provides $25 million to construct a new primary data center in the UW Tower, and provides ongoing campus computing and communications infrastructure and connectivity.
The capital budget allocates $5 million for pre-design and design of a new facility for the molecular engineering program, whose location has yet to be determined. UW Tacoma would receive $6.2 million for pre-design and design for major renovation of the Joy Building. UW Bothell would also receive $5 million for pre-design and design of a multi-purpose academic building to accommodate an additional 600 FTEs.
The budget would provide $8.4 million to continue renovation of general classroom space in Seattle, to consolidate and modernize space for student services programs, and to create additional classroom space for WWAMI and RIDE.
The list of major budget requests from the UW not included in the governor’s budget is fairly short. For example, no funds were proposed to help the University operate UW Tower. “If we can’t get funds for UW Tower operations, we will have to rent space in the building to private tenants, which will inhibit our ability to free up academic space on campus by moving units to the tower,” Hodgins says. Also, the capital budget is $8 million short of the UW’s request in providing additional space for general classroom improvements including for WWAMI and RIDE.
Now, the action shifts to the Legislature. “We’re hoping that the legislature has similar priorities as the governor,” Hodgins says, adding that he expects the competition for funds to be between education and other sectors of the state budget.
