May 11, 2011

Legislature Authorizes Tuition Setting for WA Institutions

As of today, House Bill 1795 has passed both the Washington State House and Senate by wide margins and is on its way to the Governor. As outlined in our previous post, this bill gives Washington’s four year public institutions the ability to set resident undergraduate tuition rates, alongside new financial aid and accountability requirements, for a limited time.

Note that due to the ongoing state legislative special session, as well as the need for time to discuss the policy alternatives authorized in HB 1795, the Board of Regents will likely approve the FY 2012 UW operating and capital budgets, including tuition rates for the 2011-12 academic year, at their July 21 meeting instead of in June.

In the meantime, Interim President Phyllis Wise will be holding two community conversations where she will discuss and answer questions about the budget and tuition-setting:

• Friday, May 13, 2011
  Foege Auditorium, William H. Foege Genome Sciences Building
  8:30 a.m. – 9:30 a.m.
• Wednesday, May 18, 2011
  Microsoft Atrium, Allen Center for Computer Science & Engineering
  12:00 p.m. – 1:00 p.m.

We hope to see you there.