The state supplemental budget, adopted by the Washington state Legislature this spring, included a directive for the UW and WSU to increase enrollment in engineering programs in order to graduate more engineers. Neither university has been able to keep pace with student and industry demand for engineering graduates.

In recent years, hundreds of qualified students have been turned away from engineering despite the fact that Washington’s employers—including Microsoft and Boeing—urgently need graduates in these high-demand majors. The UW and WSU each were directed to reallocate $3.8 million from current resources to fund the additional enrollments.

“It’s exciting; it’s a growth opportunity. It also recognizes that this isn’t just a UW problem. It affects all of us and we will all need to pull together to solve this issue,” says Matt O’Donnell, Frank & Julie Jungers Dean of Engineering.