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University District Unveils Its Strategic Plan

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My name is Julia Martinelli and I am the Student Assistant for the Office of the University Architect within the Office of Planning and Budgeting. I am currently a Sophomore at the University of Washington and I am planning on majoring in Architecture with a minor in Urban Ecological Design and Italian. Within my position I will be writing about events, updates, and news regarding the planning and architecture.

Currently, the University District is preparing to undergo multiple changes in the upcoming years. In an effort to guide these changes, a group of residents, businesses, social service providers, the U District Chamber, City of Seattle, and University of Washington has come together to create The University District Livability Partnership. The University District Livability Partnership (UDLP) is a four-year strategic initiative that is working towards transforming the University District into a sustainable, walkable community. The vision of the UDLP for the University District is to have a vibrant and innovative district of entrepreneurs, major employers, talented workers, and diverse residents. The collaboration of partnerships in the UDLP are preparing to help the University District transition and grow as it experiences many changes in the upcoming years, especially with the emergence of the light rail station on NE 43rd St. and Brooklyn Ave.

Within the UDLP there are four components, which include the Commercial Revitalization Strategic Plan, an Urban Design Framework, U District Next: A Community Conversation and Long-Term Leadership & Partnerships, each of which focuses on different aspects and strategies to reach the final desired goal for the U District. Additional information regarding the different components of the UDLP may be found on the Livability Partnership website.

The UDLP Strategic Plan was formally released on January 31, 2013, at the third and final U District Next: A Community Conversation event. In order to preserve the unique and historical aspects of the University District as well as develop new enhancements that will enrich the already vibrant community, the Strategic Plan has developed five initiatives. The initiatives include organization, economics, marketing, clean & safe, and urban design, each of which has its own specific set of goals and strategies. The goal of the organization initiative is to create long-term leadership capacity and partnerships of effective and diverse voices. Whereas, the economic initiative is striving to create an attractive neighborhood for various startups, large companies, and businesses where they can both flourish and contribute to the community. The marketing initiative wants to both appeal to the current community of the U District as well as reach out and draw in new residents, investors and businesses by advertising the best elements of the neighborhood. The clean & safe initiative wants to develop a safe and clean environment that contains resources that will provide support to everyone. And lastly, the goal of the urban design initiative is to design and create a built environment that fits and reflects the culture of the University District community. All of these initiatives create a group of organized tasks that will contribute to The Strategic Plan’s strategic vision for the future University District. If you would like more information on the Strategic Plan, visit the UDLP website.

Welcome to the 2013 legislative session!

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The 2013 Washington State legislative session, scheduled to last 105 days, began today. OPB will be tracking all bills that are relevant to the University and we will do our best to keep you updated on the happenings in Olympia. For the most comprehensive legislative session information, please see the Washington State Legislature’s website.

As always, check the BillTracker for the latest information on bills relevant to the UW, including scheduled hearings, bill summaries, and the official UW position on a bill. This year, we have also integrated our Fiscal Note process into the BillTracker, which will hopefully streamline the data gathering process.

For more information about how to use BillTracker and bill analysis generally, check out this presentation. If you have questions about submitting Fiscal Notes, please review this Fiscal Note presentation.

Please also feel free to check out the Office of State Relations website for up-to-date information on the state of events in Olympia.

We will post updates on the budget situation to the blog, and we will announce any new budget briefs here as well. If you have a pressing budget-related question, please contact Sarah Hall at sahall@uw.edu. For any questions related to bill tracking or Fiscal Notes, please email uwbills@uw.edu.

University District Livability Partnership Underway

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Staff from OPB in partnership with staff from Regional and Community Relations are participating in a community-wide effort known as the University District Livability Partnership (UDLP) – a four-year strategic initiative to encourage investment for a vibrant, walkable University District Community. The UDLP involves University District residents, business, social service providers, congregations, the Greater University Chamber of Commerce, University of Washington and City of Seattle’s Office of Economic Development, Department of Planning & Development, Police Department and Department of Neighborhoods. Additional information regarding the UDLP may be found on the Livability Partnership website.

The partnership includes four companion projects: a commercial revitalization plan, urban design framework, community conversations, and long-term leadership. U District Next: A Community Conversation is a series of events designed to bring local and national voices to the U District to provide perspectives of experiences that may be relevant to the future possibilities in the U District. The discussions are structured such that participants will have the opportunity to share their thoughts and ideas. The first event is to take place on October 11th at 5:30 PM. The event is a walk and talk tour of the University District focused on the pedestrian experience. To learn about future events or to participate through the web visit UDNext.com.

Possible Federal Sequester Will Harm State Budgets

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The UW’s Office of Federal Relations posted information this morning detailing the federal sequester’s impact on state budgets. The grim summary is available on the News & Updates website.

The Offices of Federal Relations, Planning & Budgeting, and Research recently collaborated on a policy brief summarizing basic sequester information. Note that sequester updates are available on the Office of Federal Relations’ blog.

New to the OPBlog

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Hi, my name is Becka Johnson. I recently joined the OPB as the Higher Education Policy Analyst and am excited to be contributing to the OPBlog as part of my new position. I earned a BA in Psychology from Whitman College and, this June, I received my Master of Public Administration (MPA) degree from the UW’s Evans School of Public Affairs. I look forward to putting my experience to use at the UW and to keeping the community informed of relevant policy topics.

Please feel free to contact me at jbecka@uw.edu if you have any questions or feedback. Thanks for reading!

MOOCs, Plus a Sign Off

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I’m moving on from the UW and wanted to leave a note here on the blog about how much we appreciate any and all readers and to say that you can look forward to even more authors and topics in the near future!

As I exit, the news of the UW linking up with Coursera has hit the press. While MOOCs offer amazing new opportunities for higher education across the world, they are nowhere close to being more than a complement to the education universities currently provide, as was outlined in a recent OPB brief.

As we naturally get caught up in the high hopes for the transformative power of technology in what is considered a very tradition-bound industry, I recommend that anyone interested read a recent book by Columbia Professor of Literature, Andrew Delbanco. College: What it Was, Is, and Should Be  does not so much propose solutions for the myriad outstanding questions about the future of higher education, particularly public higher education, but does a fantastic job of reminding us how and how much higher education has evolved in the United States over time and, most importantly, what education actually is. Any efforts to alter or replace our current delivery model must be grounded in a clear understanding of that model’s origins, essence, and outcomes.

It’s been a pleasure creating and maintaining OPBlog. As always, stay tuned here for the latest from from OPB.

Jessica Thompson

New OPB Brief on University of Washington Seattle Campus Planning Initiatives

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New OPB Brief on University of Washington Seattle Campus Planning Initiatives.

The Office of Planning and Budgeting (OPB) coordinates and oversees physical campus planning initiatives for the UW’s campuses. OPB is currently engaging partners and experts across the Seattle campus in several new planning initiatives, which are highlighted in this brief. The focus ranges significantly, but current initiatives include projecting future needs (e.g. precinct planning), systems planning (e.g. way finding and signage), master plans for sub-areas and features (e.g. Pend Oreille entrance and North Campus housing), campus-wide plans (e.g. Campus Master Plan), as well as participating in local community planning (e.g. University District planning).

Senate Republicans Stage “Coup,” Forcing Adoption of New Budget

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In a rare, surprise move (which has not occurred in the state capitol since 1987), Senate Republicans introduced a striking amendment to the Senate Ways & Means budget on the Senate floor yesterday afternoon and eight hours later, passed their version of the supplemental operating budget with only one amendment adopted. Many amendments were introduced to make changes to the Republican striker, and restore funding to specific areas of state spending, but in the end, only one amendment was carried.

Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) offered an amendment  last night to restore most of the cuts that the Senate Republicans would apply to higher education institutions, passionately declaring, “You don’t have to do this,” after asking where Senate Republicans were doing student testimony on the original Senate budget, which spared higher education institutions from additional cuts.

Despite passionate testimony and procedural action to delay a vote, the new engrossed Senate budget passed 25-24 just after midnight.

This budget is described in greater detail in an OPB brief, which compares the new Senate engrossed budget to the House engrossed budget. All told, the Senate budget would require the UW to take a $12 million cut next fiscal year.

Legislative session is scheduled to end this Thursday, March 8, but this recent shake up will no doubt complicate the last few days of scheduled action.

Debate on the Senate floor yesterday evening was highly emotional and it could take several days before legislators are ready to negotiate differences between the two now very different budget spending plans.

House Budget Proposal Cuts UW $13.5 Million

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House Ways & Means Chair Ross Hunter released the House supplemental budget proposal today, reducing state expenditures, making fund transfers, delaying payments, and capturing fund savings to deal with the current 2011-13 biennium shortfall of $1.05 billion. The Governor released her budget November 21, 2011, before the February 2012 caseload and revenue forecast improved the outlook for tax collections and caseload requirements.

If this budget ultimately passes, each of the state’s six baccalaureate institutions would reconcile a 2 to 3.5 percent state funding cut over two fiscal years, which compares favorably to the Governor’s budget, which would have cut each of the public baccalaureate universities by 16 to 17 percent. Note that theUW reduction number listed below does not include an offsetting proviso for enrollment support in the College of Engineering ($3.8 million). Please review our budget brief for more information.

Senate Ways & Means Chair Ed Murray will release his budget next and each chamber will work toward a conference (compromise) budget. Please check back regularly for budget updates and to review capital budget proposals as they are released.