TCAC
July 2000 Report Index
| UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON |
July 14, 20000
Provost Lee L. Huntsman
Office of the Provost
Box 351237
Dear Lee:
Enclosed please find the July 2000 Report of the Tri-Campus Advisory Committee (TCAC).
This year the TCAC spent a great deal of time considering policy for managing enrollment growth at the UW. The key backdrop for this consideration is the policy adopted by the 2000 legislature for funding enrollments at the state's universities and colleges. As you know, the central features of this policy are that (1) no general fund support will be forthcoming for any student FTE's enrolled beyond the legislatively set target and (2) no general fund support will be forthcoming for any shortfall in enrollment, i.e., the difference between the actual enrollment and the legislatively set target. In my view this system gives a new meaning to the term double jeopardy, and the UW well may be the only state supported higher education institution that will experience both aspects of this double jeopardy, i.e., having "rules" (1) and (2) simultaneously applied. If the historical record of ten years (Appendix F in the attached report) is any indication of how future enrollment patterns might look, then one arm of the UW, UWS, will continue to be over-enrolled and have "rule" (1) applied, as in the past, and other arms of the UW, either UWB and/or UWT, will be under-enrolled and have "rule" (2) applied. This situation seems to me to be regressive to the point of seriously calling into question the reasonableness of the current policy vis a vis the UW. In fact the history cited in appendix F shows that the UW has a record of serving over 200 FTE's annually (ten-year average) beyond the sum of the legislatively set targets for the three campuses. From the taxpayers' viewpoint this is nothing less than a stellar performance, particularly given that the beginning of the ten-year period was a time when the new campuses opened with noticeably low enrollments.
Over its last nine meetings the TCAC struggled mightily to generate specific advice for you on a new policy for managing enrollment growth at the UW. We stalled in this effort and decided instead to provide you with a summary of our deliberations about one particular plan, the Three-Point Plan, TPP. In so doing the TPP simply serves as a vehicle through which our committee could share with you a rich panoply of viewpoints about enrollment policy. Of course the hope is that these viewpoints will be of use as you work on enrollment issues in coming legislative sessions.
I am deeply indebted to the members of the TCAC for their work on this issue. To a person they are thoughtful and full of good will. Still, as you know, the boundary conditions within which an enrollment policy must reside are very restrictive. The committee members understood from the beginning of the conversation that coming forward with a specific recommendation was going to be extremely challenging. Beyond rules (1) and (2) above, the TCAC knew that issues relating to that challenge included but were not limited to the following recurring themes related to growth:
Let me close this letter to you with several personal observations. The phrase "Three Campus University of Washington" has been used for some time now, but for me at this point its literal meaning clearly rings true in an unmistakable way. Although UWT and UWB never have been identical, challenges unique to their respective campuses now are virtually transparent. For example, this fall UWB enters into co-location with Cascadia Community College. Making that experiment work well in practice (as opposed to theory) almost certainly will require the expenditure of significant effort by the members of both institutions (even beyond the substantial groundwork they have accomplished to date). On the other hand, UWT must continue to be cognizant of the ambitious expectations for it, which emanate from its very strong partnership with the Tacoma community at large. These two distinctive characteristics are forces tending to moderate UWB's growth and accelerate UWT's, at least in the near term.
It has been an honor for me to serve as chair of the TCAC. I wish you and the committee the very best as the development of this truly great three-campus university unfolds.
Sincerely,
Norman J. Rose
Chair, Tri-Campus Advisory Committee
UWB Dean Emeritus
Enclosure
| cc: | Members of the Tri-Campus Advisory Committee Mr. David Asher Chancellor Warren Buck Dean Fred Campbell Chancellor Vicky Carwein Professor Robert Crawford Associate Dean Elizabeth Feetham Assistant Vice President Eric Godfrey Vice Chancellor Stanley Slater Director Richard Thompson Professor JoAnn Taricani |
