President Emmert testified before the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee on Jan. 20 in favor of granting tuition-setting authority to the state’s public universities.
The funding model is broken:
Is there a floor to state support, which is now less than tuition revenue in the university’s budget?
Do institutions have a problem with cohort pricing?
As a new decade, a new academic quarter, and a new session of the State Legislature begin, more difficult decisions await higher education in Washington state. In the latest edition of Office Hours, UW President Mark Emmert offers his perspective on the 2010 legislative session and what’s at stake for the UW. Watch the video »
Dear Members of the University Community:
The disaster that has hit the island nation of Haiti is nothing short of horrific. Our hearts go out to the people of Haiti and to the many citizens of other countries who have been working there to help improve the lives of Haitians. Our own Department of Global Health, through its International Training and Education Center for Health (I-TECH), has had an office there since 2004 strengthening the response to HIV/AIDS. Fortunately, as far as we know, most of its people are safe and unharmed. But that cannot be said for the thousands trying to cope in the aftermath of this devastating earthquake.
Many in our UW community have inquired about ways in which they can help and provide assistance for the international relief efforts being mounted in response to this disaster. The Office of Global Affairs has assembled a list of organizations that are accepting gifts and volunteers. The list is not exhaustive and may be found at the Global Affairs web site.
I hope you will take a moment to visit the page and contribute in any way you can to help those in need in Haiti. It is hard to fathom how desperate their plight is and the difficulties they face in the coming days and weeks. Continue reading “Providing aid and assistance to Haiti”
Dear Members of the University Community:
Yesterday, Governor Gregoire released a 2010 supplemental budget proposal that addresses an additional $2.6 billion projected shortfall for the 2009-11 biennial state budget (see my Nov. 19 message to the University community). By law, the governor is required to submit a balanced budget based on current state tax revenue.
The proposed budget is by any measure a train wreck for the state, and without additional revenue would surely result in very negative consequences for many people, including students and the higher education institutions they attend. As Governor Gregoire said yesterday, she does not support this budget proposal and believes the state must consider ways to generate additional revenue to fill the gap. Continue reading “Possible impacts of the governor’s budget proposal”
Like all who rely on state funding to serve the needs of our citizens, we are deeply concerned about the impacts of the governor’s supplemental budget proposal on our state and, most importantly, our students. Just when you think things can’t get worse, they do.
Losing half of our state’s nationally-recognized need-grant program will shut out thousands of our state’s finest students from a chance at a college degree and a better future.
Without the state need-grant program, Husky Promise scholarships would be severely curtailed, and the 7,000 students who are able to attend the UW because of these scholarships would be unable to continue. Higher education would become a luxury only the well-to-do could afford.
The further erosion of state support for the UW will make it even harder for us to meet the educational needs of our students. No one—the governor, the Legislature or the University—can control the economy. But we also cannot afford to decimate critical programs and opportunities for our state’s students.
Even during a long, hard winter you can’t eat your seed corn. It is time for the Legislature and the governor to look for additional revenue sources to help moderate these unacceptable impacts on our state’s citizens.
Dear Members of the University of Washington Community:
The condition of the Washington economy and the revenue it generates in state taxes continue to concern everyone watching the state budget. All of us at the University are still dealing with the aftermath of the 2009 legislative session and the budget cuts resulting from a historically large revenue shortfall. The most recent revenue forecast from Olympia unfortunately reflects a continuing downward spiral in state tax revenues and an even larger budget hole the state will need to address in the 2010 session. Though the nation’s economy in recent months has shown welcome signs of recovery in various sectors, unemployment continues to be a nagging problem. And with our state’s heavy reliance on the sales tax, people’s confidence level and willingness to make purchases directly affect the condition of the state budget. The turnaround in state tax revenues we have all been hoping for has yet to materialize. Continue reading “Addressing the Latest State Revenue Shortfall”
University of Washington President Mark Emmert gave his annual address to the university community on Oct. 13, 2009. Watch the video »
UW President Mark Emmert discusses financial planning for the future, exciting news about research over the summer and the dedication of a new memorial to honor UW’s eight Medal of Honor recipients. Watch the video »
Dear Students, Faculty, and Staff:
As we approach the start of the new academic year, we are beginning to experience a resurgence of the novel H1N1 influenza virus, much as was expected. As has been reported in the news, colleges and universities across the country have had outbreaks of the virus as classes began. While the virus appears to be easily transmitted from person to person, the good news is that it also seems to be relatively mild as an influenza illness and most people not in high-risk populations recover fully within a week.
The University’s Advisory Committee on Communicable Diseases (ACCD), chaired by Vice President for Student Life Eric Godfrey, has been monitoring information related to the H1N1 influenza since last spring and preparing for its arrival at the University this fall. From everything we know at this point, we can expect a substantial fraction of our community to become ill with H1N1 influenza. A vaccine against H1N1 is expected to be widely available by mid-October, and when it is, we are planning for a mass inoculation program to get it to people as quickly as possible.
Dear Members of the University of Washington Community:
The news today from Olympia about the further decline in state revenues is another sign that the economic recovery will be difficult and slow. While today’s revenue forecast will not mean further cuts at this time — a scenario hard to imagine, given what we are going through — we do need to be mindful that the economic situation has yet to stabilize and we need to act accordingly. The next revenue forecast will come in September, and we hope that will show more encouraging signs that an economic recovery is taking hold.
In the meantime, we are about to start the new biennium, and the economic environment in which we do so is very fragile. We have worked hard over the past few months to do everything we could to protect core instructional activities and programs, and we remain committed to maintaining the highest possible quality instructional programs for our students. Governor Gregoire has asked state agencies to continue to conserve spending. I am urging the deans and chancellors, vice presidents, and others as we start the new biennium to keep the current economic climate clearly in view and to proceed cautiously and prudently in committing resources as we await the next revenue forecast in September.
The continued decline in state revenues underscores the importance of the University continuing to look for ways to increase efficiencies and creatively seek opportunities to cultivate new sources of revenue, a subject we will all be discussing and engaging more intensively in the weeks and months ahead.