News & Updates

According to a story in this morning’s Tri City Herald, a state auditor’s report released on Monday has found that staff members at WSU Tri Cities improperly manipulated data to inflate the campuses reported enrollment.  The report stems from a whistleblower complaint June 21 that alleged that campus officials were complicit in inflating student credit hours.

WSU officials announced that as a result of the findings, four university officials, including two vice chancellors, have been disciplined and their duties discontinued.  WSU officials further indicated that a 2008 supplemental budget request for additional enrollment funding has been withdrawn.

The Auditor’s report said the net effect of the WSU Tri Cities changes was to make the enrollment figures appear higher than reality.  In the fall of 2006, the campus reported 692.9 full time student equivalents (FTE), but in reality only had 661.54 student FTE.

WSU Tri Cities Chancellor Vicky Carwein said she first learned about the discrepancy when the campus was informed about the complaint last summer.  She then put policies in place to stop the practice.  WSU President Elson Floyd said in a statement that he supports Chancellor Carwein’s actions.

After years of slow to moderate tuition increases, Arizona’s three major universities are poised for significant jumps in the resident undergraduate tuition in the next academic year.  However, two of the schools are also trying novel approaches to keeping that tuition predictable over the course of the student’s period of study.

Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe will raise tuition and fees for freshmen and community college transfer students by almost 14 percent next fall, but will then “cap” future tuition increases at 5 percent.  Resident undergraduate tuition at ASU for freshmen will go from $5,000 per year to $5,659 next year and then increase by no more than 5 percent per year thereafter.  Returning students at ASU will see there tuition go up next year by 5 percent.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff is taking a stab at what is called “cohort pricing.”  NAU Regents plan to increase tuition and fees by 12 percent for new students then lock that rate in for those students for four years.  The ASU and NAU tuition policies are a significant departure from current practice whereby tuition rises at the same level for ALL undergraduate regardless of their academic class.

The University of Arizona in Tuscon will increase their tuition rates by 9.8% for ALL resident undergraduate students but the school is not offering guaranteed rates or caps on tuition for the future.

According to the Arizona Republic, student groups has asked each board to freeze tuition and requested that the Arizona Legislature kick in additional funds to each university so that each campus would have sufficient budget support.

Rep. Chris Strow (R-Freeland) who represents the 10th District in the state legislature (Island County and parts of Snohomish County) will resign his seat next week to take a fulltime position with the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) in Seattle.  Strow told the Associated Press today that the heavy time pressure of campaigning and serving in Olympia was taking too much time away from his family.  He also cited the low pay for state elected officials.

Strow will replace Angela Kerwin who left her position as principal economic policy analyst for the council to move to California last month.  Angela was one of the chief PSRC staff members who worked on the Prosperity Partnership’s high demand degree package which was enacted last session by the legislature.  Strow is likely to continue that work as the Partnership continues its work to stregthen higher education budget and policy in the state.

Before his election to the state House, Strow served on legislative and congressional staffes including a stint as chief of staff for the then U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-WA).  His wife Mary Lane, is the communications director for Dino Rossi’s gubernatorial campaign.

This morning, Governor Christine Gregoire tapped state Court of Appeals judge Debra Stephens of Spokane as the newest member of the state Supreme Court.  Stephens replaces Justice Bobbe Bridge who announced earlier this year she would step down at the end of December to run a juvenile justice program.

Stephens, a graduate of Gonzaga University’s School of Law, becomes the first woman Supreme Court justice from Eastern Washington.  According to the Seattle Times, the appointment of Stephens is a bit of a surprise.  Most court watchers expected the Governor to appoint Appeals Judge Mary Kay Becker, King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu or Hugh Spitzer, a well known constitutional law scholar.

Stephens will have to run statewide for re-election next November.

Jaime Herrera, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has been chosed to complete the term of former state representative Richard Curtis who resigned last month following media reports of a sexual encounter in a Spokane hotel.  Clark and Cowlitz county commissioners meeting in Kelso yesterday voted to appoint Herrera to the 18th district post.  She was sworn into office by the Cowlitz County auditor.  Herrera also served as a session intern for Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-Ridgefield) who is the Senator from her new district which includes the communities of Ridgefield, Camas, Battle Ground, Kalama and Woodland.

It’s a bitterly cold Friday morning in Olympia and the one day special session is now history.  Not much to do yesterday other than catch up on paperwork, telephone calls and watch the House and Senate reinstate the 1% property tax limitation that was tossed out a few weeks ago by the Supreme Court.  Not too much drama either as the limitation bill passed easily from both chambers and was signed instantaneously by the Governor.  The most popular person in Olympia yesterday seemed to be some fellow called “Will of the People” who was referred to by virtually every speaker in committee or on the floor.  Perhaps I’ll get to meet him some day soon.

The previous Wednesday, the Senate Higher Education Committee held a hearing at 3:30 p.m. on the two North Sound campus reports prepared by NBBJ consultants and the UW.  I was on a panel of presenters with Debora Merle from the Governor’s Office and Martin Regge from NBBJ Consultants.  As has been the case with most legislative hearings on this topic, most of the questions and passion surrounded the NBBJ report which ranked the Pacific Station site in Everett as the preferred location for the new campus.

Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen (D-Camano Island) and Sen. Val Stevens (R-Arlington) asked the most pointed questions of NBBJ as they have expressed their public support for the Smokey Point site in Marysville.  Sen. Steve Hobbs (D-Lake Stevens) also asked many questions about the ranking of the sites and criteria chosen as he has been a public backer of the Cavalero site in Lake Stevens.  Committee chairman Sen. Paull Shin (D-Edmonds) did a good job of keeping the committee focused and allowing each of us on the panel to make our respective presentations.

While the ultimate location of the campus site remains in the hands of the state legislature, the Pacific Station site did get a boost on Thursday as the Everett Herald reported that Sen. Jean Berkey (D-Everett) has thrown her support behind the Pacific Station site.

Today, I will make presentations on UW North Sound to the House Higher Education Committee at 10:00 a.m. and the House Capital Budget Committee at 3:30 p.m.  More on those hearings in a future post.

According to this morning’s Chronicle of Higher Education, officials at California’s two public university systems are pitting themselves against their counterparts in the state’s community college system over a February 2008 ballot measure that would provide a guarantee of additional state funding for California’s two year colleges.

The measure, officially known as the Community College Governance, Funding Stabilization, and Student Fee Reduction Act but referred to most often by its ballot number, Proposition 92, would establish a separate state funding guarantee for the California Community Colleges, as well as a separate enrollment growth formula.  The measure would also reduce student fees (tuition) and make changes in governance of the two year schools.

California already has a funding guarantee for K-12 schools which is known as Proposition 98.  According to the non-partisan Legislative Analyst’s Office, Proposition 92 would require the state to spend about $300 million per year more for public schools AND community colleges.

The governing boards of the University of California (UC) and California State University (CSU)  systems have taken positions against Proposition 92.  While UC and CSU officials expressed strong support for the community college system, they fear that passage of Proposition 92 could endanger the budgets for four year universities because it would limit the pot of state money available to agencies without protected streams of funding.  UC and CSU board members further point out that changing the funding provisions of the measure would require a four-fifths vote of the legislature and a two thirds vote would be required to increase student fees.

Supporters of Proposition 92 include the California School Employees Association and the California Community College Association.  In addition to UC and CSU governing boards, opponents include the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Teachers Association, the League of Women Voters of California and teh California Business Roundtable.

By now, most of you know that the Governor has called for a special session of the legislature to be held for one day, this Thursday November 29.  The legislature was already scheduled to be in the state capital this week for their regularly scheduled late November committee assembly.  With the one day special session, previously scheduled committee hearings had to be quickly reorganized.  For your information, here’s a preview of higher education related hearings for the upcoming week.

On Wednesday November 28, the House Higher Education Committee will hold a joint meeting with the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Education at 9:30 a.m. in House Hearing Room A.  Topics on the agenda include community college budgets, financial barriers for students and an update on the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) master plan.

The Senate Higher Education Committee will hold a hearing later that afternoon at 3:30 p.m. in Senate Hearing Room 3.  Topics include a presentation on the HECB strategic master plan and a presentation on the siting recommendations and preliminary academic plan for the UW North Sound campus.

On Friday November 30, the House Higher Education Committee will meet at 10:00 a.m. in House Hearing Room D to discuss key issues for the 2008 legislative session.  Following a staff recap of the 2007 session, the HECB’s strategic master plan will be discussed and the each of the higher education system representatives (state board, COP, faculty, students, etc.) will be given time to discuss 2008 priority issues.  The final item on the agenda will be a presentation by OFM the and the University on the North Sound campus planning reports.

The House Capital Budget Committee will hold a hearing at 3:30 p.m. that same day in House Hearing Room A.  Topics on the committee’s agenda include an updates on the joint task force on school construction funding and the public infrastructure study committee and another presentation from NBBJ, OFM and the UW on the North Sound campus planning reports.

Most of the local political blogs seem convinced the Governor will call the state legislature into special session sooner rather than later to act to reimpose some sort of local property tax limitation in light of the Supreme Court’s recent decision to toss out Initiative 747.  The Associated Press said today that Democratic leaders were preparing for a special session on property taxes and that House Speaker Frank Chopp has indicated that like the Governor, his caucus favors reimposing the 1% limit called for in Initiative 747.  Senate Democrats also seem to indicate that a special session on property taxes is inevitable, but have not yet publically endorsed the 1% limitation.

The Governor’s Republican challenger Dino Rossi has called for a special session on this issue as has Initiative 747 sponsor Tim Eyman.  The state legislature has a regularly scheduled assembly in Olympia at the end of the month and that would be a likely target date for a special session since most members have already re-arranged their schedules to attend.

For the first time in several years, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council has reduced the state revenue forecast.  At their quarterly meeting in Olympia yesterday, the Council voted to reduce state general fund revenue collections available for the current biennium by $132 million.  Dr. Chang Mook Sohn, the state’s chief revenue forecaster, said that most of the downward change was due to the expected slowdown in real estate activity.

The change in the revenue forecast is less than one half of one percent of total general fund revenues and Dr. Sohn emphasized that the Washington State housing and construction sectors are still outperforming the U.S. as a whole.

With the recent passage of resolution 8206 which establishes a constitutional rainy day fund, the projected $1.4 billion in state reserves now consist of $430 million in the newly created “budget stabilization account” and $954 million in so-called “unobligated” revenues.