The following statement is from University of Washington Interim President Ana Mari Cauce:
“I am pleased to see that the House budget begins the critical work of reinvesting in higher education for the benefit of our students and our state. The new funding for faculty and staff compensation, computer science enrollment expansion and medical residencies is critically important. The proposed budget in its entirety, however, may not be sufficient to keep tuition affordable and to fulfill our public commitment to deliver the innovations, discoveries, products and talented young people that our region needs. We must be about both access and excellence, and we will continue to stress that a robust state investment is critical.
“We are also extremely pleased that the House budget proposal recognizes the critical importance of keeping the UW’s #1-ranked primary care program in Spokane and of increasing our enrollment from 40 to 60 students per year. The transfer of $4.7 million in dedicated funding for our medical school from WSU to the UW will ensure that we can maintain and grow our medical education program to meet the critical physician workforce needs of the state.”
This week a number of groups traveled to Olympia to advocate for UW legislative priorities and public higher education.
On Tuesday, leaders from the UW Computer Science & Engineering Department made the rounds to talk with legislators about the importance of a new Computer Science & Engineering building. This expansion would allow CSE to double the number of degrees it produces annually. Read a letter that tech leaders recently sent legislators expressing strong support for the project.
Also on Tuesday, the Husky Crew Team (four-time national champs!) visited with Governor Jay Inslee, and visited the House and Senate floor for photos with UW alumni serving in the Legislature. The team’s visit came the same day as the state’s film industry hosted an advocacy day, where among many topics of discussion, was the possibility of the popular book Boys in the Boat being made into a motion picture.
On Wednesday, Regents & Trustees from the four-year public baccalaureate institutions and two-year community and technical colleges held their annual advocacy day in Olympia. The advocacy push comes at a key time, as legislative budget writers are in the midst of drafting spending proposals for the 2015-2017 biennium.
Regents and Trustees with Rep. Zeiger
Also on Wednesday, leaders from the UW College of the Environment talked with legislators about opportunities for investing in critical research at the University, such as ocean acidification, climate impacts, and marine research in local waters. On the same day, UW leaders participated in the Seattle Chamber of Commerce’s annual executive day at the Capitol to talk about higher education’s important links to the state economy.
On Thursday, leaders from the UW College of Arts & Sciences met with capital budget leads to advocate for a new Life Sciences building. The project would allow one of UW’s most popular majors (Biology) to expand to meet student demand, and feed the growing Life Sciences sector in the state economy.
UW Arts & Sciences leaders pose with Harry the Husky
Also on Thursday, ASUW and GPSS hosted groups of pre-med and medical students for meetings with legislative leadership and alumni serving in the legislature, to advocate for the importance of preserving and expanding UW’s WWAMI medical education program. They had a special guest along for the day as well, who proved quite popular! View an album of the visits on our Facebook page.
UW Students with Speaker Chopp, Reps. Orwall & Pollet
Remember, to get updates during the legislative session, be sure to bookmark the blog, follow us on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook.
A group of UW Regents were in Olympia this week to advocate for UW and public higher education. Regents met with a bi-partisan cross-section of state legislators in both the House and Senate.
Discussions centered on the state budget and the need for reinvestment in public higher education, as well as medical education and UW’s capital funding requests.
The meetings come at a key time in Olympia, as legislators are in the midst of floor action, considering a wide range of proposals that have been passed out of policy and fiscal committees.
In the coming week, legislative members will continue apace with floor action, debating and voting on bills.
Now that decision-makers have a better idea of the state’s fiscal picture following the forecast, in terms of a timeline for the state budget, the House goes first this year in releasing its plan. At present, the House is anticipated to release its plan sometime later this month (March). As a reminder, the House’s proposal will be the second step in a lengthy state budget process; the first being the Governor’s budget plan released in December (Read OPB’s brief on that proposal here). Following the House plan, the Senate will then likely respond with its plan, and then negotiations will ensue to find a compromise.
State Relations and OPB will continue to monitor developments in Olympia as House and Senate leadership in fiscal committees work toward release of their initial budget proposals.
Check the Session Cutoff Calendar for other important dates coming up. For a refresher on the legislative process, read more about how a bill becomes a law in the Washington State Legislature.
Pictured (L-R): Mike Egan, UWAA Past President, Sen. Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane), UW Regent Kristi Blake, UW Regent Bill Ayer.
Today is Day 50 of the 105-day 2015 Regular Session.
Legislative cutoff dates signal the ebb and flow of legislative activity, as committee, staff and legislative members’ workloads change in response to the winnowing list of bills still “alive.”
Legislative work moves from committee to floor sessions this week, as both policy and fiscal cutoffs on the legislative calendar are now in the rear view mirror. That means if either a policy bill, or a bill with a fiscal impact, hasn’t been voted out of committee, it’s not likely going further in the process this year. That being said, some bills declared “dead” may still be revived if they are deemed necessary to implement the budget (“NTIB”).
The next cutoff will be the floor cutoff on Wednesday, March 11 at 5:00pm, the time by which a bill has to make it out of its house of origin, to be considered by the other chamber.
To watch floor debate in the House and Senate, tune-in to TVW.
The Senate Health Care committee held a hearing and passed SB 5909 today, a bipartisan proposal intended to comprehensively address the critical need for primary-care access and healthcare-workforce shortages in Washington’s rural and underserved communities.
Specifically, the proposal would:
Expand the UW School of Medicine and Dentistry in Spokane to train more rural doctors and dentists at about half the cost of the national average. The legislation would, over time, expand the number of UW medical school slots in Spokane from 40 to 120 students per year, providing greater opportunities for Washington students to have access to medical school in their home state. The UW is also directed to increase the number of dental students from 8 to 30 students per year at its dental program in Spokane; 90 percent of the program’s graduates practice in rural and underserved areas across Washington.
Increase investment in residency programs, the greatest predictor of where medical school graduates will stay and practice medicine, to encourage students to stay and practice not only in eastern Washington but in other rural and underserved areas of the state. Subject to state funding, the legislation would increase the number of family medicine residency positions, including positions for osteopathic providers, in underserved areas.
Fund loan-repayment and scholarship opportunities for students who choose to serve in rural and underserved communities. Underserved communities would be provided additional resources to recruit and retain qualified health professionals. The legislation also would fund a rural medicine incentive program for students to help remove the financial barriers related to practicing medicine long-term in healthcare shortage areas.
Watch video via TVW’s website of testimony in support of the proposal from UW State Relations, UW School of Medicine, and UW School of Dentistry. Greater Spokane, Inc. testified in support of the expansion of UW School of Medicine in Spokane, which is included as a priority community initiative in their annual legislative agenda. The Washington State Medical Association also testified in support of increasing investment in residency programs.
Four current first year UW School of Medicine students also made the trek to Olympia today to register their support for the proposal. Watch video of the student panel’s testimony in support of SB 5909 via TVW’s website.
First Year UW School of Medicine Students Testify in Olympia in support of SB 5909. Photo: UW School of Medicine Students Testify in Olympia
University of Washington Provost and Executive Vice President Ana Mari Cauce was named interim president by the Board of Regents at their regular meeting on Thursday. Her appointment will be effective March 2, 2015. She succeeds President Michael K. Young, who is leaving the UW for Texas A&M University.
A bipartisan group of legislators in Washington’s House and Senate have introduced a proposal intended to comprehensively address the critical need for primary-care access and healthcare-workforce shortages in Washington’s rural and underserved communities.
Senate Bill 5909 and House Bill 2065 bring together several active legislative proposals, including expansion of the University of Washington School of Medicine and UW School of Dentistry in Spokane, increased investment in residency programs, and the expansion of loan-repayment opportunities for students who choose to serve in rural and underserved areas.
The legislation would:
Expand the UW School of Medicine and Dentistry in Spokane
Increase investment in residency programs
Fund loan-repayment and scholarship opportunities
Protect the existing UW School of Medicine in Spokane
Last week (Feb. 3), Professor and Institute for Learning and Brain Sciences co-director Patricia Kuhl presented to the House Early Learning & Human Services Committee on early childhood learning and brain development.
Today (Jan. 29), Dan Schwartz, Director of UW’s Clean Energy Institute, appeared before the House Committee on Technology & Economic Development to give an overview of CEI’s pioneering work in the fields of solar generation, energy storage, and systems integration.
The CEI was founded in 2013 with a $6 million investment from the Washington legislature, which has the institute has leveraged to attract additional federal and foundation support.
The institute is accelerating the translation of science into technologies that support the development of solar energy and its integration into the electrical grid.
View Dr. Schwartz’s presentation to the committee here, and CEI’s recently released annual report here.
We will post a link to Dr. Schwartz’s comments via TVW as soon as the video is available.
Leaders of the University of Washington and UW Medicine appeared before the Senate Higher Education Committee yesterday (Jan. 23) to make the case for the expansion of UW’s community-based medical education program, WWAMI, in Spokane.
UW President Michael K. Young, UW Medicine CEO and Dean of the School of Medicine Dr. Paul G. Ramsey and UW Regent Orin Smith spoke on behalf of the university.
