Oct
30
The Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) released their preliminary 2009-11 operating budget recommendations today at their monthly meeting held on the UW Seattle campus.
Given the deteriorating budget outlook for 2009-11 which is resulting from significant declines in projected general fund revenues, Board staff have recommended a very modest level of new investments in higher education next biennium.
For example, the Board is not recommending any new funding for compensation increases – the largest single component of all higher education institutional budget requests. In addition, Board staff are not recommending funding for any “general” enrollment increases, although they did recommend funding for some high demand enrollments and a community college system on-line learning initiative.
For the UW, the HECB operating budget recommendations are as follows:
Maintenance level budget adjustments $76.9 million
High demand enrollments $14.2 million
College of the Environment $6.0 million
Biomedical Research $4.5 million
TOTAL 2009-11 Increase $101.6 million
By the standards of the 2007-09 biennium, these are austere recommendations, particularly the lack of funding for cost of living adjustments for faculty and staff, enrollment increases for the Tacoma and Bothell campuses or funding for many worthy University initiatives. However, given the worsening state revenue picture (the next forecast is November 19 and is likely to decline again), these budget recommendations could potentially be a high water mark.
Oct
28
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.
Oct
20
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.
Oct
10
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.
Oct
7
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.
