News & Updates

With a presidential and gubernatorial election coming this November, it’s pretty easy to lose track of how statewide initiative gathering is coming this summer.  But believe it or not, next Thursday July 3, is the deadline for turning in signatures for measures that proponents want to appear on the November 2008 ballot.

So far, the two most high profile ballot measures (I-985 and I-1000) seem to have managed to turn in at least the minimum 225,000 signatures required, but the campaign leaders also know that they probably need to collect another 30,000 to 50,000 signatures by next Thursday because many signatures collected initially are often found to be invalid.

The two major ballot initiatives vying for a spot this November are:

Initative 985:  Tim Eyman’s latest foray into the initiative world is aimed at reducing traffic congestion.  The measure opens HOV lanes to all traffic during certain hours and creates a traffic congestion relief fund to be financed by using a portion of sales tax on cars, red light ticket cameras and funds set aside for art on transportation projects.

Initiative 1000:  Former Governor Booth Gardner’s assisted suicide initiative which would permit physicians to help terminally ill patients end their lives.  The measure is modeled after Oregon’s law which took effect in 1997.

Another measure which might also qualify is Initiative 1029 which would require newly hired long-term care workers who work with the elderly or the disabled to be certified after passing an examination and would require increased training and background checks.  The initiative is modeled after legislation introduced this past legislative session which did not pass.

This story yesterday in the Everett Herald finally brings to light something that has been talked about off-the-record since the battle over the location of a possible new UW North Sound branch fizzled in a stalemate at the end of the 2008 legislative session.

The Legion Memorial Golf Course in Everett is being discussed by lawmakers as a location which could be a potential compromise between proponents of the Everett Transit Center and Marysville-Smokey Point sites.  Although the site was not offered by the city last year and has not been through a comprehensive evaluation, it is located at the very north end of the city, closer to north county residents and proximate to Everett Community College.

As you may recall, at the tail end of the last session, the Legislature provided $100,000 to the Higher Education Coordinating Board to convene interested parties from the region and develop a consensus recommendation for a campus site.  There is no formal public process for this endeavor and the city of Everett is still evaluating whether or not the golf course could even be converted to an alternative purpose.  Jerry Cornfield’s story goes on to mention that Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island) and Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-Snohomish) have recently met to discuss how to move forward on the issue.  Who knows if the Legion Golf Course holds the keys to a potential compromise?

This is a really great time of year if you’re someone like me who lives their professional life by the rhythms of the state legislature.  It’s mid-June, the weather is warm and the 2008 session seems like a distant memory.  Better still, most elected officials are preoccupied with their respective campaigns and the 2009 session is still more than half a year away.  State government?  What’s that?

I’m only joking, of course.  This is the time of year when we work really hard to get elected officials onto the campus to meet our faculty, staff and students and learn about our research and academic endeavors.  We’ve had quite a few Olympia-types visit over the past couple of months and I thought I’d give you a quick summary of some of what’s been going on.

• Sen. Jim Kastama (D-Puyallup), Sen. Derek Kilmer (D-Gig Harbor) and several Senate committee staff came to the Seattle campus recently to learn more about UW research efforts.  Kastama is the chair of the Senate Economic Development, Trade and Management Committee and a big proponent of higher education research as a critical driver of the state’s economy.  Vice Provost for Research Mary Lidstrom assembled an impressive series of presentations which included Dr. Michael Hochberg who spoke about nanophotonics, Dr. Ed Lazowska who talked about the recently formed UW “eScience Initiative” and Dr. Paul Yager who discussed bioengineering and point-of-care diagnostics.
• Staffers from the Senate, House and Governor’s office paid a visit in April to the UW Tacoma campus to learn more about their campus and plans for the future.  In addition, some of the same individuals participated in a tour in early May of the two leading sites for the potential UW campus in Snohomish County.
• Staffers from the Senate Human Services and Corrections Committee visited campus in May to learn more about the School of Social Work’s “Partners for Our Children” program.  This innovative partnership between the UW, the Department of Social and Health Services and the private sector to improve the state’s child welfare system.  The visit was lead by Mark Courtney, Executive Director of the program.
• The House Early Learning and Children’s Services and Higher Education Committees held a joint work session at the Burke Museum last week which focused on the preparation of world class teachers and early learning professionals.  UW College of Education Dean Pat Walsley and Cap Peck, Director of Teacher Education were presenters in the early afternoon session on partnerships and collaboration.
• Sen. Margarita Prentice (D-Renton), chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee was on campus yesterday to visit the UW Autism Center.  Sen. Prentice is the parent of an autistic son and has been very active in supporting programs and research in this area.  In the 2007 session, she secured funding for the UW to produce a educational DVD to provide help to parents of autistic children. The DVD is now finished and on June 25, President Mark Emmert and Sen. Prentice will appear at a press conference with autism center staff to unveil the DVD and introduce some of the families who participated in the project.
• Rep. Larry Seaquist (D-Gig Harbor) paid a visit to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) yesterday to learn more about their work.  Rep. Seaquist was a supporter of the UW’s 2008 supplemental budget request to provide additional resources to the IHME to facilitate more work on Washington State health care costs and outcomes.  Institute director Chris Murray and Michael MaIntyre, director of strategy and special projects helped to organize the visit.

We have lots more visits planned for our state elected officials in the coming weeks and months.  If I’ve missed a recent visit that you might have coordinated, please let me know so that we can share it with the group.

The June revenue forecast for Washington state was adopted in Olympia today and shows a projected decline of $167 million for the remainder of the current biennium and the upcoming biennium which begins July 1, 2009.  The change in the forecast is statistically less than one-half percent of total general fund tax collections.

Dr. Steve Lerch, the interim executive director of the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council stated that while the U.S. economic outlook is weaker since the last revenue forecast in February, state business tax collections have actually been on target.  Real estate excise tax collections continue to be sluggish, relfecting the overall weakness in the housing markets.

The change in the state revenue forecast breaks down as follows.  In the current 2007-09 biennium, revenues are projected to decline by about $50 million, while in the ensuing 2009-11 biennium, $117 million less is expected than forecast this past February.  With these forecast revisions, the state’s budget reserves drop from $851 to $801 million, with $442 of this amount in the constitutionally-protected “rainy day fund.”

The new forecast does not appreciably impact the overall budget picture for 2009-11 where a shortfall between projected revenues and projected expenditures of about $2.5 billion is expected.

Here’s an announcement from the UW Provost’s office that will certainly be of interest to the business and economic development community in the Puget Sound and Washington State.

Linden Rhoads, a veteran executive in the Seattle high tech community will become Vice Provost for UW Technology Transfer, effective August 14.  Ms. Rhoads co-founded or served as an active director and/or interim CEO of a number of locally successful start-up companies.  She is a graduate of Smith College and the UW Law School.  She has also served on the board of the Washington Technology Center, the Dean’s Advisory Board at the UW Law School and other UW capital campaign committees.

Linden Rhoads replaces Jim Severson who recently stepped down from the position to take a job with a local technology company.

Here are a number of stories and issues that have caught my eye this week that should be of some interest to the UW.

Massachusetts Upping the Life Sciences Ante

Governor Deval Patrick has made regaining Massachusetts life sciences research prominence the cornerstone of his economic development agenda.  It appears at least one chamber of the General Assembly agress with him.  By a vote of 31-7, the Senate passed a $1 billion package of tax breaks and direct appropriations designed to push the state back into a national leadership position in life sciences.  One of the biggest winners is the UMass-Amherst, a UW Global Challenge competitor school who will get $95 million for a new life sciences research building.  Here’s the full story from the Boston Globe.

Colorado Businesses Opposed to Scholarship Plan

Governor Bill Ritter of Colorado wants to put a lot more money into higher education.  The problem for some is that he wants the money to go towards college scholarships rather than improving programs within the state’s universities.   According to the Denver Post, Ritter wants to repeal an existing tax credit for oil and gas industries and use the funds to dramatically expand financial aid for low and middle income students.  Business groups seem to be opposed and higher education leaders are disappointed at least some of the new funds are not going directly to their schools.

Rutgers Football Stadium Funding Back on Track?

Looks like Governor John Corzine is back to helping Rutgers University (another UW Global Challenge competitor institution) with their plans to raise funding for a $102 million expansion of their football stadium.  Last winter, Corzine pulled the plug on using state funding to pay for a portion of the stadium expansion due to the state’s budget crisis, but pledged to personally help raise money to replace the $30 million the university was seeking from the state.  Here’s the story from the Star-Ledger.

More on Western Washington’s Presidential Transition

Pretty lengthy and thoughtful article in Crosscut on the upcoming presedential transition at Western Washington and an assessment of President Karen Morse’s 15-year tenure written by former Western professor Floyd McKay.

Tomorrow morning at 10:00 a.m. in Olympia, the initial organizing meeting of the State Performance Agreement Committee will be held in Senate Hearing Room 3 of the John A. Cherberg Building.  The Committee was created by Engrossed House Bill 2641 (Jarrett) which was created to represent the state’s interests in developing and negotiating performance agreements with the six public baccalaureate institutions.

Members of the Committee include:

• Senator Jim Kastama (D-Puyallup) 
• Senator Jerome Delvin (R-Richland)
• Representative Fred Jarrett (D-Mercer Island)
• Representative Joe Schmick (R-Colfax)
• Ann Daley, Executive Director, Higher Education Coordinating Board
• Wolfgang Opitz, Deputy Director Office of Financial Management
• Chris Alejano, Governor’s Higher Education Policy Advisor
• Brian Jeffries, Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction

Staff support for the committee will be provided by the Higher Education Coordinating Board.

The UW Board of Regents has approved the formation of an internal committee chaired by Doug Wadden, Executive Vice Provost to develop the University’s draft agreement which will be presented to the Regents at their July meeting.

Lots and lots of national political news to read and digest, but not much political or higher education news to report in Washington State.  Candidate filings began this week, but no real surprises in any of the major contested races.

I’m proud to announce that Steve Juarez, one of my oldest friends and a former co-worker during my Sacramento days, has been named the new director of state relations for the University of California System.

Here’s the press release from the UC system office.  Congrats buddy!

I’ve had Western Washington University on my mind a lot this past week.

Spent the past weekend attending my son’s performance of Macbeth in the Miller Hall courtyard on the Western campus.  I guess you could call it a “post-apocalyptic” interpretation of the bard’s most violent play.  “Mad Max Beyond Inverness” would be a good alternative title.  Anyway, it was a splendid show and the students really did a great job putting the play on with a pretty tight budget.

You may have also read this week that Western settled its 16-month negotiation with the United Faculty of Western Washington on a new collective bargaining contract, the details of which are summarized in this story from the Bellingham Herald.

Up until this past weekend, tensions were running pretty high on the campus, with some faculty refusing to participate in student projects outside the classroom and threatening to picket at graduation.  The student newspaper, The Western Front, editorialized in favor of the faculty union last week after a recent negotiation session failed to produce an agreement.

I’m glad the issue has been resolved and I’m sure congratulations are in order for all sides of the table.  To quote from Macbeth, “what’s done is done” and a good time to focus on the future of a great university.

I don’t know about you, but I’m a pretty devoted reader of The Onion — for my money, the most consistently funny news parody site on the web.

Here’s an Onion news item from last fall that’s sure to excite the nation’s education community.  Indisputable proof of the value of education.  Enjoy!

I’m off now for a long weekend in Bellingham to watch “number one son” in what he calls an alternative “outdoor” performance of Shakespeare’s Macbeth on the Western Washington University campus.  This should be interesting.

Hope all of you have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day weekend.