News & Updates

In his successful campaign for Governor last year, Eliot Spitzer asked why New York did not have a “Berkeley of the East” and said he wanted New York’s public colleges to be among the finest in the nation.  Spitzer’s remark lead to the creation of a 30-member State Commission on Higher Education which releases its findings this morning.  The New York Times obtained an advance copy of the report and reported its major findings in yesterday’s Sunday edition.

The report calls for significantly higher financial support for New York public universities and allowing the universities to set their own tuition without state approval and to vary tuition rates by campus.  The report also urges hiring 2,000 additional faculty members and creating a $3 billion innovation fund for research grants in fields that can fuel economic development.

The reference to UC Berkeley is an acknowledgement that New York has historically under-invested in its State University of New York (SUNY) system created during Governor Nelson Rockefeller’s tenure.  While the system has grown substantially, only 55 percent of New York college students are in public institutions compared with 79 percent nationally.  Higher education in New York receives less than 7 percent of the state budget compared with a national average of 11 percent.  According to the Times story, John Simpson, the president of SUNY-Buffalo states that “There is a history of chafing between the public universities and the privates in New York State, and the publics have historically not won.”

While SUNY-Buffalo and SUNY-Stony Brook are both belong to the Association of American Universities, the nation’s major research schools, they are not the same caliber at UC Berkeley which is regularly ranked as one of the country’s top three public research institutions.  For a state with a spotty track record on major investments in public higher education, Governor Spitzer and the New York public universities will have their work cut out for them when the state legislature convenes next year.

Public radio reporter Austin Jenkins wrote this story for Crosscut.com yesterday about what has been a hot topic in the Olympia rumor mill for a number of weeks — will Rep. Helen Sommers (D-Seattle) run for re-election in 2008?

Sommers, who is 75 is the chair of the powerful House Appropriations Committee and a longtime friend of higher education and the University of Washington.  She has served continuously in the House of Representatives since 1973.  In 2004, she battled back a tough primary election challenge from an SEIU-backed Democratic opponent and was then easily re-elected in 2006.

Speculation on her political future began in earnest this fall as several lobbyists reported that Sommers was returning campaign contributions.  For her part, Sommers indicates she remains undecided about another term and won’t make her decision until after the legislative session.

• With the departure of Rep. Jon Lovick from the state legislature due to his election as the new Snohomish County Sherrif, Rep. Jeff Morris (D-Anacortes) has been elected by his caucus to be House Speaker Pro Tem.  In this capacity, Morris will preside over floor debate when House Speaker Frank Chopp is not at the rostrum and will also serve as a member of the House Democratic leadership team.  Rep. John McCoy will take over Morris’ duties as chair of the House Technology, Energy and Telecommunications Committee.
• Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-Sunnyside) has been chosen as House Republican Floor Leader, replacing Rep. David Buri who has left the House to become government relations director for Eastern Washington University.  Rep. Charles Ross (R-Naches) will replace Newhouse as Republican Assistant Floor Leader.
• Rep. Dave Upthegrove (D-Des Moines) is the new chair of House Ecology and Parks Committee.  This new committee will handle environmental protection and conservation issues.  Upthegrove was chair of the Select Committee on Puget Sound.
• Rep. Brian Blake (D-Aberdeen) takes the helm of the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee, which became vacant with current chair Rep. Brian Sullivan was elected to the Snohomish County Council in November.

According to Seattle Times chief political reporter David Postman, Rep. Fred Jarrett (R-Mercer Island), a long-time supporter of higher education announced today he is switching parties and will run for the state Senate next year in the 41st district as a Democrat.  Incumbent Sen. Brian Weinstein (D-Mercer Island) has also announced his retirement, clearing the way for Jarrett to run in the primary next August.

Jarrett’s switch means that House Democrats will increase their majority from 62 to 63 out of 98 total members in the lower chamber.  A moderate Republican who got his start in politics on Dan Evans gubernatorial campaign, Jarrett is in his third term in the House of Representatives and is a past Mercer Island mayor and city councilmember.  He works as a project manager in Boeing’s commercial airplane division.

No word yet on possible committee assignments for Jarrett.  If you want to read more about the reasons behind his party switch, here’s a link to the Postman on Politics blog.

Hope most of you saw the story’s in the papers yesterday about the Governor’s proposals to improve campus safety at the state’s universities and colleges.  The UW had requested a total of $5.3 million for various campus safety initiatives in our 2008 supplemental budget request.  This included:

• $4.5 million one-time funding for a mass notification system for many of the oldest buildings on campus
• $195,000 one-time funding for an outdoor public address system
• $100,000 one-time funding for a community alert system
• $405,000 ongoing funding for the Violence Prevention and Response Program
• $112,000 ongoing for the Students of Concern Program
• $50,000 ongoing costs for support of the mass notification system

In her announcement on Tuesday (which was made in Parrington Hall), the Governor made it clear her budget will include ALL the one-time funding components requested by the University but deferred consideration of the ongoing requests until the 2009-11 biennial budget.

Here is a link to the official campus safety annoucement from the Governor’s office.

Obviously, a major priority for my office is to insure the legislature supports the Governor’s one-time recommendations while persuading House and Senate fiscal and higher education committee members to support the ongoing funding components.

The Governor will release her entire 2008 supplemental budget recommendations next Tuesday December 18.

According to a story in this morning’s Tri City Herald, a state auditor’s report released on Monday has found that staff members at WSU Tri Cities improperly manipulated data to inflate the campuses reported enrollment.  The report stems from a whistleblower complaint June 21 that alleged that campus officials were complicit in inflating student credit hours.

WSU officials announced that as a result of the findings, four university officials, including two vice chancellors, have been disciplined and their duties discontinued.  WSU officials further indicated that a 2008 supplemental budget request for additional enrollment funding has been withdrawn.

The Auditor’s report said the net effect of the WSU Tri Cities changes was to make the enrollment figures appear higher than reality.  In the fall of 2006, the campus reported 692.9 full time student equivalents (FTE), but in reality only had 661.54 student FTE.

WSU Tri Cities Chancellor Vicky Carwein said she first learned about the discrepancy when the campus was informed about the complaint last summer.  She then put policies in place to stop the practice.  WSU President Elson Floyd said in a statement that he supports Chancellor Carwein’s actions.

After years of slow to moderate tuition increases, Arizona’s three major universities are poised for significant jumps in the resident undergraduate tuition in the next academic year.  However, two of the schools are also trying novel approaches to keeping that tuition predictable over the course of the student’s period of study.

Arizona State University (ASU) in Tempe will raise tuition and fees for freshmen and community college transfer students by almost 14 percent next fall, but will then “cap” future tuition increases at 5 percent.  Resident undergraduate tuition at ASU for freshmen will go from $5,000 per year to $5,659 next year and then increase by no more than 5 percent per year thereafter.  Returning students at ASU will see there tuition go up next year by 5 percent.

Northern Arizona University (NAU) in Flagstaff is taking a stab at what is called “cohort pricing.”  NAU Regents plan to increase tuition and fees by 12 percent for new students then lock that rate in for those students for four years.  The ASU and NAU tuition policies are a significant departure from current practice whereby tuition rises at the same level for ALL undergraduate regardless of their academic class.

The University of Arizona in Tuscon will increase their tuition rates by 9.8% for ALL resident undergraduate students but the school is not offering guaranteed rates or caps on tuition for the future.

According to the Arizona Republic, student groups has asked each board to freeze tuition and requested that the Arizona Legislature kick in additional funds to each university so that each campus would have sufficient budget support.

Rep. Chris Strow (R-Freeland) who represents the 10th District in the state legislature (Island County and parts of Snohomish County) will resign his seat next week to take a fulltime position with the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC) in Seattle.  Strow told the Associated Press today that the heavy time pressure of campaigning and serving in Olympia was taking too much time away from his family.  He also cited the low pay for state elected officials.

Strow will replace Angela Kerwin who left her position as principal economic policy analyst for the council to move to California last month.  Angela was one of the chief PSRC staff members who worked on the Prosperity Partnership’s high demand degree package which was enacted last session by the legislature.  Strow is likely to continue that work as the Partnership continues its work to stregthen higher education budget and policy in the state.

Before his election to the state House, Strow served on legislative and congressional staffes including a stint as chief of staff for the then U.S. Rep. Jack Metcalf (R-WA).  His wife Mary Lane, is the communications director for Dino Rossi’s gubernatorial campaign.

This morning, Governor Christine Gregoire tapped state Court of Appeals judge Debra Stephens of Spokane as the newest member of the state Supreme Court.  Stephens replaces Justice Bobbe Bridge who announced earlier this year she would step down at the end of December to run a juvenile justice program.

Stephens, a graduate of Gonzaga University’s School of Law, becomes the first woman Supreme Court justice from Eastern Washington.  According to the Seattle Times, the appointment of Stephens is a bit of a surprise.  Most court watchers expected the Governor to appoint Appeals Judge Mary Kay Becker, King County Superior Court Judge Mary Yu or Hugh Spitzer, a well known constitutional law scholar.

Stephens will have to run statewide for re-election next November.

Jaime Herrera, a former aide to U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers has been chosed to complete the term of former state representative Richard Curtis who resigned last month following media reports of a sexual encounter in a Spokane hotel.  Clark and Cowlitz county commissioners meeting in Kelso yesterday voted to appoint Herrera to the 18th district post.  She was sworn into office by the Cowlitz County auditor.  Herrera also served as a session intern for Sen. Joe Zarelli (R-Ridgefield) who is the Senator from her new district which includes the communities of Ridgefield, Camas, Battle Ground, Kalama and Woodland.