Skip to content
Blog

Category: OPB News and Announcements

Public Profiles – New Interactive Dashboards Now Available!

Posted on

In May 2018, in collaboration with UW-IT’s Enterprise Information, Integration and Analytics (EIIA) unit, the Office of Planning and Budgeting (OPB) relaunched Public Profiles, which are now five interactive dashboards including:

All dashboards, except Degrees Production Trends (which is refreshed every August), are refreshed with new data every academic quarter after census day. The data is sourced from the University of Washington’s Enterprise Data Warehouse (EDW). The numbers presented in all dashboards have been approved by OPB and reconcile against internal institutional dashboards – UW Profiles (requires access to EDW).

These dashboards act as the University of Washington’s “Institutional Fact Book.”  Anyone with the access to the internet can view these dashboards using their preferred browser. Explore the dashboards: https://www.washington.edu/opb/uw-data/uw-profiles-information/

Check back for additional dashboards and visualizations as they become available. Updates regarding these dashboards are also provided by UW-IT on their News page.

Please contact uwprofiles@uw.edu with any questions or for help using these dashboards.

OPB Briefs: 2018 Bill and Fiscal Note Summaries Now Available

Posted on

Date: April 5, 2018

OPB has posted two summaries, recapping the 2018 state legislative session, under the “Briefs” tab of the OPB website:

The 2018 Session Bill Summary lists the bills OPB tracked that were passed by the legislature. Links to veto messages are provided for bills that were partially vetoed by the Governor. Of the 775 bills that OPB tracked in the 2018 legislative session, 82 passed into law.

The 2018 Session Fiscal Note Summary lists the fiscal notes – evaluations of the fiscal impact of a bill proposal – that OPB completed on behalf of the UW (with the help of subject matter experts across the University) during the session. All fiscal notes are requested by legislative staff through the Office of Financial Management (OFM) in Olympia to guide legislative decision-making. This session, OPB responded to 145 fiscal note requests from OFM, breaking a record for the most in a legislative session.

Capital Budget Moving Through Senate

Posted on

A proposed state capital budget, SB 6090, passed out of the Senate Committee on Ways & Means with substitutes and may be voted on soon.  Last session, lawmakers came to a compromise on a proposed capital budget, but it was ultimately not passed due to a disagreement over a rural water rights issue. This proposal is the same as that proposed compromise, except it includes language proposed by the Governor before this session that would allow the UW and other agencies to be reimbursed for capital expenditures that occurred on or after July 1, 2017 in the absence of an approved capital budget last year.  A similar process is occurring in the House with HB 1075.  OPB will monitor any changes that occur on the House or Senate floor on passage of the budget(s).

Stay tuned to the OPBlog for updates on the legislative session, including the capital budget.

New OPB Briefs: Published Price vs. Net Price, Differential Tuition, and Activity Based Budgeting

Posted on

OPB has released two new briefs.

The Published Price vs. Net Price brief is an updated version of a brief we posted in June, reflecting the newest available data.  The brief includes sector-wide data on trends in published price and net price for public and private four-year colleges and institutions, a description of how declining state investment in higher education has spurred tuition increases, and a table comparing the UW’s net price for resident undergraduates receiving grant or scholarship aid to its U.S. News & World Report top 25 research university peers.

OPB also has a new brief on policy and programmatic trends for differential tuition in higher education, and a recent brief on the Activity Based Budgeting (ABB) model used at the UW and other institutions.

OPBlog: Introduction

Posted on

Hello! My name is Kelsey, and I am the new Policy Analyst with the Office of Planning and Budgeting. I have my Master of Social Work in Administration and Public Policy from the University of Washington, am a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer and a former intern at the City of Seattle’s Mayor’s Office, and most recently worked as a Research Analyst at the UW Evans School of Public Policy and Governance studying science education policy and programming. I’m excited to combine my experience working in higher education, local policies and funding, data analysis, and equity with the Policy, Planning, and State Operations team at OPB. I will be updating this site periodically with news, analysis, and commentary on higher education policy trends, local, state, and federal policies, budget announcements, and anything related to policies and finances at UW.

Please feel free to provide feedback along the way. I can be contacted at rotek@uw.edu. Thanks for reading!

UW Fast Facts 2018 – Now Available!

Posted on

The 2018 edition of UW Fast Facts is now available. You can find it on the OPB website under the UW Data tab, and in the Quick Links bar on the right.

A special thank you to OPB’s Institutional Data & Analysis team, the Marketing & Communications team and to our partners around the UW for their work to gather, verify and crosscheck data; format the document; and pull it all together.

OPBlog: Introduction

Posted on

Hi! I am Lauren Hatchett, and I am the 2017-18 Legislative and Policy Analysis Intern with the Office of Planning & Budgeting. I am also a graduate student in the Masters in Education Policy Program in the College of Education. Before moving to Seattle and starting my program, I worked for an education initiative in Louisville, KY that is focused on changing the college-going culture at the city level. I am excited to join the OPB team and am looking forward to diving into the world of higher education policy. I will update this blog throughout the year with posts related to trends in higher education, federal and state legislative issues, and UW-specific policy initiatives.

Please feel free to provide feedback along the way. I can be contacted at lehatch@uw.edu. Thanks for reading!

OPB Briefs: 2017 Legislative Session Bill and Fiscal Note Summaries Now Available

Posted on

OPB has posted two summaries concerning the 2017 legislative session to the Briefs tab of our website:

The 2017 Bill Summary lists the bills OPB tracked during session that were passed by the legislature. Links to veto messages are provided for bills that were vetoed or partially vetoed by the Governor. OPB tracked over 460 bills in the 2017 legislative session, 69 of which passed into law.

The 2017 Fiscal Note Summary lists the fiscal notes—evaluations of the fiscal impact of a bill proposal—that OPB completed on behalf of the UW (with the help of subject matter experts across the University) during the 2017 session. All fiscal notes are requested by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) in Olympia to guide legislative decision-making. This session, OPB completed 111 fiscal notes.

Two New OPB Briefs: Resident Undergraduate Tuition Trends and Net Price

Posted on

OPB has released two new briefs.

The first brief focuses on trends in Resident Undergraduate (RUG) tuition rates and state funding environments across the United States, based on the most recent “Trends in College Pricing” report, which is released by the College Board each year. The report identifies Washington as the only state to have lower RUG tuition and fee rates than it did five years ago.

The report serves as a basis for a deep dive into the funding environments of some other case studies. The brief looks at Louisiana, Florida and Ohio as comparisons to Washington, as they are the three other states whose legislatures retain RUG tuition setting authority. Despite this fact, each state has had a variety of outcomes regarding tuition policy. California and Maine are also highlighted as case study comparisons because they are the only two other states to show a decrease in tuition over the past five years, though theirs are due to inflation-adjusted tuition freezes.

The second brief is an updated version of previous “Published Price vs. Net Price” briefs, which reflects the newest available data. The brief includes sector-wide data on increases in published price and net price for public and private four-year colleges, a description of how declining state investment in higher education has spurred tuition increases, and a table comparing the UW’s net price net price for resident undergraduates receiving grant or scholarship aid to its U.S. News & World Report top 25 research university peers.

Finally, it is with subdued excited that to announce that these two briefs and blog post will be my last contribution to OPB as an intern. I am graduating tomorrow from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, while taking a job down at the State Capitol in Olympia. Thanks to all for reading!

OPBlog: Introduction

Posted on

Hello! My name is Sharyl Morris and I am one of the Legislative Analysis staff members in the Office of Planning & Budgeting. I have been employed in the field of higher education since 2001, when I began working in the main library at Tufts University (Medford, Massachusetts). As I worked my way from the east coast to the west coast, I also shifted my focus from university libraries to administrative planning and budgeting and policy analysis. During session, I track bills that are introduced by the legislature and prepare fiscal notes that are used by legislative staff as they determine the direction and funding level of proposed bills.

When the legislature is not in session, I support OPB’s Budget Office where my areas of expertise include financial index maintenance, fixed cost analysis, revolving funds, and Student Technology Fee support.

Like the others on my team, I will be updating this blog with posts involving various higher education topics. My first post is a brief on cohort-based tuition models.

Thanks for reading!