TVW’s Inside Olympia aired an hourlong interview with UW President Mark Emmert on June 10, 2010. Issues ranged from his reasons for taking the NCAA job to advice for his replacement. He also addressed budget cuts, the UW’s relationship with the Legislature, serving on corporate boards and much more.
President Emmert on TVW’s Inside Olympia
The UW is a vitally important economic engine for the state of Washington and plays a crucial role in keeping our region competitive in the global economy. Yet many Washingtonians don’t realize the full extent of the impact our University has on their own financial well-being and quality of life. To help us analyze the depth and breadth of economic benefits the UW brings to our state and our citizens, we recently enlisted the services of the nationally recognized independent consulting firm Tripp-Umbach. The results of their study surprised even us. Consider these findings:
Dear Members of the University Community:
With the 2010 session of the State Legislature now concluded, we have a clearer picture of what our budget for 2011 will be. The results are about what we expected—we ended up doing better in some areas and worse in others, and there were no surprises in the concluding hours of the session. While there were many disappointments in the session, I was extremely pleased that need-based financial aid was kept intact. Our student and faculty leaders joined us in making a strong case for the critical nature of these funds, and our arguments carried the day. It is also fair to say that without the revenue package the Legislature ultimately agreed on, things could conceivably have ended up much worse than they did, particularly for student financial aid. A summary of the budget legislation may be found on the University’s Office of Planning and Budgeting web site.
In 2011, we will be dealing with a continuation of the budget cuts we have endured now for three years running. In 2009, the University’s state general fund budget was reduced by $16.8 million. This year, our budget was reduced by an unprecedented $94.7 million. And next year, we will have another reduction of $20.6 million. Thus, over this three-year period, we will have lost $132 million in state general fund support—a 33% reduction in state support.
We have been able to withstand the worst effects of the budget reductions in part because the University has been authorized to increase tuition. We have had to look to our students to pay more for their education because state support has shrunk so much. We do not relish having to raise tuition, but without that additional revenue, we simply would not be able to offer students the educational experience they deserve.
As we did this year, in implementing the additional reductions, we will try to minimize the impacts on academic programs and students. Provost Wise is meeting with deans, vice provosts, vice presidents, and faculty and student leadership as she develops the new budget proposal for 2011. Earlier this year, schools and colleges were asked to model cuts of 3.5 and 5%, and these have been posted to the Office of Planning and Budgeting web site. Many of the effects described there will be moderated by the additional tuition revenue we anticipate next year. Continue reading “Outcomes of the 2010 State Legislative Session”
The Legislature begins its special session today, needing to finish its work on the 2010 supplemental budget, including spending cuts and taxes. As we have seen during the 60-day regular session, legislators have been wrestling with the unenviable task of plugging a large hole in the state budget. Finding the right balance between more budget reductions and increased tax revenues is a daunting task and the reason they have gone into special session. We wish them wisdom and a speedy resolution.
The University prefers the Senate version of the operating budget, in which all higher education institutions would have the same 6% cut to their budgets. The House’s version cuts the UW at a higher level than other institutions and also transfers over $18 million in student building fees, which we use for critical capital maintenance projects, into the general fund. We hope the compromise budget looks more like the Senate’s.
With respect to the capital budget, we hope to get a higher funding level approved for the Balmer Hall renovation and for the UW Tacoma Phase 3 project. The majority of both projects are financed with UW building funds–not state bonds– and both were reduced from their original request levels.
We did have some good news during the regular session. A couple of bills were passed that give the University more management flexibility in purchasing and capital projects, enabling us to save more dollars in our business operations. This is especially important in these tight economic times.
As students complete their final exams and head off for a brief respite before spring quarter begins, we are watching closely for signs of progress in Olympia.
In a letter to Gov. Chris Gregoire and members of the state Legislature, UW President Mark Emmert offered his thoughts on the 2010 supplemental operating and capital budget proposals. He also thanked the governor and lawmakers for making student financial aid a priority in both budgets.
“Regarding the two chambers’ approaches to our budget reductions,” he wrote, “we strongly prefer the Senate approach.” Read more in his March 1 letter >
The Senate Ways and Means Committee on Monday took testimony on Substitute Senate Bill 6562, which would give tuition-setting authority to the UW, WSU and Western Washington. The UW is trying to strike the right balance between access and affordability and quality for our students and for the state. Here are audio excerpts from the hearing:
SBB 6562 explained by staff:
The UW supports the bill:
What percentage of state funds makes up the UW’s budget? If the bill passes, what assurance is there that the number of minority and middle-class students won’t drop and that the debt load on students won’t increase?
What about graduate and professional students?
Freshman retention rates:
Dear Members of the University Community:
With the 2010 legislative session now underway, I want to take this opportunity to follow up on my November e-mail message in which I communicated the University’s strategies in the wake of the latest state revenue shortfall. As we move forward, we are focusing our message in Olympia on four key planks:
President Emmert testified before the Senate Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee on Jan. 20 in favor of granting tuition-setting authority to the state’s public universities.
The funding model is broken:
Is there a floor to state support, which is now less than tuition revenue in the university’s budget?
Do institutions have a problem with cohort pricing?
Dear Members of the University Community:
Yesterday, Governor Gregoire released a 2010 supplemental budget proposal that addresses an additional $2.6 billion projected shortfall for the 2009-11 biennial state budget (see my Nov. 19 message to the University community). By law, the governor is required to submit a balanced budget based on current state tax revenue.
The proposed budget is by any measure a train wreck for the state, and without additional revenue would surely result in very negative consequences for many people, including students and the higher education institutions they attend. As Governor Gregoire said yesterday, she does not support this budget proposal and believes the state must consider ways to generate additional revenue to fill the gap. Continue reading “Possible impacts of the governor’s budget proposal”
Like all who rely on state funding to serve the needs of our citizens, we are deeply concerned about the impacts of the governor’s supplemental budget proposal on our state and, most importantly, our students. Just when you think things can’t get worse, they do.
Losing half of our state’s nationally-recognized need-grant program will shut out thousands of our state’s finest students from a chance at a college degree and a better future.
Without the state need-grant program, Husky Promise scholarships would be severely curtailed, and the 7,000 students who are able to attend the UW because of these scholarships would be unable to continue. Higher education would become a luxury only the well-to-do could afford.
The further erosion of state support for the UW will make it even harder for us to meet the educational needs of our students. No one—the governor, the Legislature or the University—can control the economy. But we also cannot afford to decimate critical programs and opportunities for our state’s students.
Even during a long, hard winter you can’t eat your seed corn. It is time for the Legislature and the governor to look for additional revenue sources to help moderate these unacceptable impacts on our state’s citizens.