Whew! Every legislative session takes on a personality, and judging by the first week this one is going to be serious and fast-paced. Mixed in with the ceremony of the opening day, the Governor’s inaugural address and the inaugural ball there were plenty of committee hearings, many focused on how the state will close a growing budget gap.
We participated in a number of hearings. At the House Education Appropriations Committee hearing on Thursday, we were able to talk about the value of higher education to the citizens of the state, and to begin to spell out some of the possible implications of proposed budget cuts.
The UW continues to rank as one of the best values in public education. We receive more federal research dollars than any other public university in the nation. We provide a high percentage of the graduates in high-demand fields, and our students are nationally recognized. We are also consistently rated a great value in higher education and demand for enrollment continues to increase. You can see the list of UW achievements and contributions that we provided to the committee here.
The size of the budget cuts we face has not been seen since the early 1980s. They will require serious changes in the way the University operates. We are still developing our approach, and the exact changes needed will depend upon the final budget, but here are some of the possibilities we shared with the committee:
- Freezing enrollment at the Seattle campus in spring quarter. This could affect 300 to 400 students.
- Larger class sizes
- Scaled back course offerings
- Reduced financial aid
We are asking lawmakers to provide us as much flexibility as possible to deal with the budget shortfall. The recent reports of a drop in our endowment income makes it even more important that we are able to find cost savings wherever we can, while keeping our focus on the quality of the education we provide.
Another side of the story is the capital budget – the UW has a number of ready-to-go projects that could help provide a boost to construction spending and jobs. We will be discussing with lawmakers ways that those projects might be accelerated to provide a more immediate impact.
Next week, there are a number of hearings we will be following. In the Senate, the Ways and Means Committee will be taking public testimony on the Governor’s proposed budget at 3:30 on Monday and Wednesday. Friday at 1:30 the Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee will devote its session to enrollment trends and the current fiscal crisis. On Wednesday at 8 am, the Economic Development, Trade & Innovation committee will look at progress at commercializing university research.
On the House side the House Higher Education Committee will be briefed on performance agreements (Tuesday at 10), strategic expansion of higher education (Wed. at 1:30), and high demand enrollments (Friday at 8 am).
The only prediction we can boldly make for next week — it won’t slow down.