News & Updates

While Washington State contemplates how to dig itself out of a projected three plus billion budget hole for next biennium, three of the nation’s sunshine states continue to experience even more dire budget situations which are already having severe impacts on those state’s higher education systems.

In California, what Sacramento Bee columnist Dan Walters calls the recently enacted “smoke and mirrors” budget has already collapsed like a house of cards and Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is forced to call the legislature back into session next week to fix a six week old budget which is already $10 billion out of balance.  Just last week, University of California (UC) officials cancelled cost of living or merit based pay increases for all faculty and staff this year.  Contributions to the UC retirement system are also scheduled to increase due to declining investment returns — the first time in two decades contributions have been necessary.  Further reductions are in the works which could be in the range of 10 percent depending on the outcome of the next budget balancing legislative session.

The Arizona Republic reported today that Arizona State University (ASU) is preparing to lay off 200 or more faculty associates and dramatically boost some class sizes next spring as it prepares for more budget reductions.  Some lecture style classes could jump from 300 to 1,000 students.  These actions come as ASU prepares for an additional $25 million in state budget reductions on top of the $30 million in cuts the university has alread made in the past year.  ASU officials have no plans at this point to reduce enrollment or eliminate any majors.

In Florida, the gloomy state economy is continuing to create a lot of uncertainty for public colleges and universities which had to take major budget cuts in the most recently enacted state budget.  Florida’s private colleges are nervous, worried about declining returns on private endowments as a result of the turmoil in the financial markets.  Less money for private schools means many students will turn back to public universities for their education, but many Florida schools have had to freeze enrollments the past few years to cope with budget cuts.

One can’t help but wonder how prophetic these reports may be for the future of higher education in Washington.

Hard to surf the national websites these days without reading about budget misery all around the nation and the plethora of proposals out there to cut funding for higher education.  At least half of the states are projected to be in some current or future state of fiscal distress and as has been in the case during recent economic downturns over the past 30 years, higher education generally bears the brunt of the reduction.

South Carolina just cut public higher education by 15 percent and warned institutions not to raise to tuition to compensate.  Arizona just completed a devastating budget session that saw double-digit cuts to higher education and the postponement of a much trumpeted construction bond issue which would have jump-started a number of access and research capacity projects.  Governor Patrick in Massachusetts has told public colleges and universities they will lose 5.6% of their state funds to help balance the budget and in Pennsylvania, 4.25% cuts are being planned to university budgets.

In Washington State, budget reductions of about 2% have been proposed for the current fiscal year and all of us in higher education anxiously await the Governor’s 2009-11 budget recommendations in December to see how the projected budget gap will be dealt with, especially if new taxes are off the table.

At the same time we read about upcoming budget challenges, discussions continue to look for ways to expand higher education opportunities in the Puget Sound region.  It’s been awhile since we talked about the efforts to create a new UW North Sound campus, but discussions lead by a consultant to the Higher Education Coordinating Board continue to explore potential compromises on a site for the yet to be located and funded campus.  The Everett Herald recently ran this story about how a new UW North Sound campus is playing out in the Gregoire-Rossi contest for Governor.

Conversations also continue on how to expand four year degree opportunities on the Kitsap Peninsula.  A number of ideas have been discussed in meetings held this interim including establishment of an academic center or increasing the ability of Olympic College in Bremerton to offer more four year degrees.  And most recently, Bellevue Community College has raised the idea of broadening its academic mission to offer four year degrees as well.

I suppose the good news on all of this is that a lot of well-intentioned folks continue to believe in the importance of expanding higher education opportunities, particularly the idea of producing more four year degrees.  One wonders, however, how to balance such enthusiasm against the realities of the state’s budget situation and the importance of continuing to support and strengthen the existing system of public higher education institutions in the state.

Here’s a sobering story from the Boston Globe.

One of the United States notable “generational contracts” has been the notion that our children would be more likely to graduate with a college degree than their parents.  That was certainly my parent’s dream for me, neither of whom had an opportunity to get a four-year degree.

But a new study by the American Council on Education has found that degree granting rates for younger generations are beginning to stall.  The percentage of younger adults with a bachelor’s degree was about 27% in 2006, a decline from the 29% who held degrees only three years earlier.  The numbers for Hispanics and American Indians are less encouraging.

Sorry to have been away from the blog for so long, but a family trip and my new duties as Interim VP for External Affairs have pushed the blog to the background for awhile.  However, budget news continues to dominate the last few entries and today is no exception.

At noon today, Governor Gregoire announced a series of budget actions which will reduce spending in the current 2009 fiscal year by a total of $330 million.  The components of these reductions include $90 million from the hiring, equipment and travel freeze she announced last month, $200 million in new savings the Governor directed her budget office to find after the most recent revenue forecast, and another $40 million in savings recently requested by the Governor due to the turmoil in the financial markets.  Here’s the official news release from the Governor’s Office.

Conversations with staff in the Governor’s budget office today indicate that the UW’s share of these reductions is $9.6 million, which represents about two percent of our total FY 2009 state funds appropriation.  It’s important to note that this is not an “automatic” budget reduction, but will be included in the Governor’s budget recommendations to the Legislature.  Ultimately, it will be up to the state legislature to decide whether these reductions are implemented and how much will be cut from each agency’s current biennial budget.

The September revenue forecast for the Washington state general fund dropped a combined $529 million when the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council met this morning in Olympia.  Dr. Steve Lerch, the state’s interim chief economist stated consumers have been hit hard by bad news and remain extra cautious, influencing spending and state tax collections.

Governor Gregoire immediately directed the Office of Financial Management to find an additional $200 million in savings in the current biennial budget, without affecting vital programs.  This would be on top of the $90 million in savings anticipated from the recent freeze on state hiring, equipment purchases, out of state travel and personal services contracts.

The $529 million revenue drop is divided roughly equally between the current 2007-09 biennium (-$273 million) and the ensuing 2009-11 biennium (-$256 million).  The revised forecast leaves $86 million in unobligated budget reserves and $442 million in the state’s “Rainy Day Fund.”

Assume that many of you have seen this morning’s news release by the UW concerning Scott Woodward and his appointment today as Director of Intercollegiate Athletics.  Scott has been my boss for the past four years and I have a lot of mixed feelings about the news.  I’m happy for him that he is going into a job that he clearly wants and for which he has some exciting challenges ahead.  I’m sad because I will miss working closely with him on a regular basis to help advance the University’s agenda in Olympia.  But, that’s life.

Scott’s departure means some changes for yours truly too.  President Emmert has asked me to take over Scott’s position as Vice President for External Affairs on an interim basis, at least through the end of the 2009 legislative session (and who knows when that might be?).  And to add to the excitement, I get to keep my job as Director of State Relations too.  Guess I’m the victim of the state hiring freeze.

Seriously, I’m quite honored and humbled to be chosen to try and fill-in temporarily for Scott and I can tell all of you who follow the blog that my postings are probably going to be a little less frequent for awhile until I get settled into managing these dual roles together.

But today’s Scott’s big day so let’s send all the good karma we can down Montlake Way. Go Dawgs!

As you will recall, at the end of the 2008 session, the legislature gave $100,000 to the Higher Education Coordinating Board to convene the interested parties in the region and develop a consensus recommendation for a permanent site for a UW North Sound branch campus.

The Everett Herald reported this past Sunday that the HECB has retained the services of Bill Wilkerson to carryout their consensus-building task for a North Sound campus location.  Wilkerson is well-known in Olympia circles, having previously served as head of the state fisheries department and as the former executive director of the Washington Forest Protection Association.  The HECB is surely counting on his many years of experience negotiating a bevy of contentious fishing and timber disputes to help bring the Snohomish, Island and Skagit county participants together on this issue.

Wilkerson’s contract runs through November 30 and a report to the legislature is due December 1.

Monday’s Chronicle of Higher Education (subscription required) had an eye-catching story about our local airplane manufacturer and their plans to rank colleges around the nation based on the job performance of the more than 35,000 engineers who work for the company worldwide.

Richard Stephens, Boeing’s Senior VP for Human Resources and Administration and a member of the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education asked Boeing officials to match internal data from engineer personnel evaluations with the information about the colleges that they attended.  It will use this analysis to create an internal ranking system (which it plans to unveil in about a month), that will show which universities produce the workers that Boeing considers most valuable.

While Boeing plans to keep its ranking system confidential, it does plan to share the information with individual colleges and universities in an effort to help them improve themselves.  The top-ranked colleges, however, may be less interested in keeping the news quiet, according to Stephens in the Chronicle story.

Interested to see how the UW fares in this new system and whether other major employers in the nation develop similar ranking programs.

Some big changes this week at the Senate Ways and Means committee (as you know, my old stomping grounds).

David Schumacher, who has served as senior staff coordinator for the past four and a half years will be leaving at the end of the month to become Director of NW State and Local Government Affairs for the Boeing Company.  As Joe Turner from the Tacoma News Tribune so aptly put it, that’s a really long title for “lobbyist.”  David previously served as Ways and Means capital budget coordinator and as revenue analyst during part of my tenure on the committee staff.  David is also a proud Husky and it will be fun to have him on the outside of the big doors with us during the next session.

David’s replacement will be Mike Wills, who has served since 1996 as the Ways and Means budget coordinator.  There are few individuals in state government who understand the intricacies of the budget as well as Mike and he will do a great job in this new role.  Mike previously worked as budget director for the Department of Social and Health Services and as a consultant for Mathematica.

Last week, the state Senate held committee hearings in Vancouver, WA as part of their September “assembly days.”  Tomorrow and Friday, the House of Representatives takes their turn in Olympia.

Rep. Helen Sommers will chair what might be one of her final hearing as chair of the House Appropriations Committee tomorrow at 3:30 p.m.  Sommers, who has served in the state legislature since 1973 is retiring this year after 16 consecutive terms.  On the committee’s agenda is a presentation by UW Vice Provost for Research Mary Lidstrom on the status of the University’s “advanced technology initiatives” which were originally funded by the state beginning in the 1999-01 biennium.

This was one of the first attempts by the state legislature in a number of years to provide state funding for UW research activities — especially activities which had a great chance of leveraging other non-state research dollars.  In each case — infectious diseases precision forestry, computer animation and digital media — the return on investment has been significant.  An additional initiative in photonics was funded in 2001-03 which has also been quite successful.

On Friday, the House Higher Education Committee will hold a joint hearing with House Health Care and Wellness on health care provider shortages and training.  School of Medicine Dean Paul Ramsey will be one of the presenters at this meeting which begins at 10:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room A.