Revenue for Operations: We have seen the Governor's and Senate budgets, but continue to wait on the House budget. The House Appropriations Committee has approved a budget, but it is meeting resistance in the full chamber. The three budgets provide policy-level reallocations, budget cuts, and tuition-setting authority that vary greatly. The House Appropriations budget provides the best support for higher education with a funding increase of approximately $4.7 million for the biennium and a modest tuition increase of 5 percent each year of the biennium. It provides enrollment recovery money to Central Washington University and rebases our budget to 7,776 FTE. Both the Governor's budget and the Senate budget would result in a net loss of from $3.3 million to $4.2 million and propose a 9 percent resident in-state tuition increase for each year of the biennium. Table 1 (link - use your back button to return to the Bulletin) provides a fuller revenue picture based on each of the budgets.

In addition to state-level cuts, we also will reallocate funds internally to address critical needs of the institution. The largest share of the reallocations continues our commitment to honoring classified staff range step increases, increases associated with faculty promotions, and faculty and exempt equity processes. Accounts also are established to support the administrative costs of collective bargaining for faculty and staff. We have set aside funds to address increases in the cost of utilities and disabilities support. We're committing $400,000 to ensure that we can staff the classes that will be needed to meet the needs of students. Last, we've increased by half a million dollars our support for tuition waivers to qualified students. A full list of the internal reallocations is included in Table 2 (link - use your back button to return to the Bulletin).

To determine the impact of state funding, tuition increases, and internal reallocations on our FY 04 budget, we began with an estimate of overall revenue, including tuition revenue based on a conservative 8,000 FTE students for each of the three scenarios. We then looked at mandatory expenditures and internal reallocations. Based on all of this, we anticipate that the aggregate cut across current state general fund and tuition budgets (ledger 1), depending on the final state numbers, will be anywhere from 2.8 to 4.9 percent. Even though this is somewhat better than we had been led to expect, we'd like to whittle that number even further. The president's cabinet is researching the feasibility of a set of immediate cost-saving proposals, long-term cost-saving proposals, and revenue-generating proposals. More global ideas about how to transform the university while maintaining our emphasis on educational and student life excellence are also part of our discussion. We will not realize the benefit of some of these actions for some time to come, but we believe now is the best time to begin them. In the meantime, each division has presented budget-cutting scenarios, which I am now reviewing with the vice presidents and with my own division. Based on the savings and additional revenue we are able to generate and the eventual revenue picture that emerges, I will reach an agreement with each division at the earliest possible moment about its revenue picture for next year. Sadly, the legislative process works in such a way that I can't give any of you the kind of advance notice about your budgets that would be desirable, but we are making the best projections we can as early as we can.

The Capital Budget: The very best news coming out of Olympia is that we continue to see signs that legislators support the completion of our music education facility and understand the important role of our two-plus-two agreements with centers. All three capital budgets have been released. The Governor's capital budget includes $33.1 million for CWU; the Senate provides $44.5 million; and the House budget totals $29.7 million. Both the House and Senate budgets support Phase II of the music education facility, CWU's contribution to the CWU-Des Moines facility on the Highline Community College campus, and minor works, preservation, and infrastructure projects. However, the Senate budget provides considerably more support for each of these projects than the House budget. Details are provided in Table 3 (link - use your back button to return to the Bulletin). The Senate also has made it clear that members expect to see the Dean Hall renovation as our highest priority for capital funding in the 2005-07 biennium.

Enrollment Planning: Predicting and planning for enrollment is one of the most difficult tasks that face the university administration. This has been a particular challenge for CWU because of shifting expectations at the state level about the role of Central in meeting the state's higher education needs. As recently as 10 years ago, enrollments were capped by the state, and CWU was providing many classes through continuing education to stay within the state cap. When the state lifted the cap on enrollment, CWU did not have the level of staffing required to mount an active program of recruiting. Now, we're bursting at the seams and trying to decide how we will offer classes and other services to meet students' needs.

It appears that we are on target for an annualized enrollment of 8,100 this academic year, and current projections based on new freshman and transfer applications and our ever-increasing retention rate suggest we will have the option of an enrollment of 8,500 next year. While this is good news in the sense that we will earn tuition revenues for 500 more students than we had planned, it is bad news in the sense that we don't have a clear plan for how we can accommodate this many students.

It's for this reason that I have directed the cabinet to begin working within the divisions of the university to develop a true enrollment growth and management plan. Our planning goal for the next two biennia will be to achieve and accommodate an enrollment of 10,000 FTE by the year 2010.

Specifically, our aim is to grow enrollment on the Ellensburg campus to 8,000 FTE and at the centers to 2,000 FTE. This is somewhere between current growth rates and the enrollment target set for CWU by the Higher Education Coordinating Board in its 2000 Master Plan. To achieve this goal and to ensure that we continue to provide high quality educational programs, we must begin to plan right away. Although we may be able to achieve some economy of scale as we grow, the reality is that we'll need additional resources. We need to identify the costs of our programs, identify centers of excellence that will be the focus of our recruiting efforts, and consider carefully the staffing requirements in all areas of the university that are required to provide outstanding intellectual stimulation, educational achievement, and service. To this end, I have asked the vice presidents to conduct a cost analysis and identify the revenue needed to achieve this enrollment goal as it affects all aspects of university life.

Summary: Clearly this is not the best of times for the state of Washington from an economic standpoint, but many of our legislators have stood solidly in favor of maintaining support for higher education despite the troubling state revenue picture. Both the House and Senate budgets have rewarded our enrollment recovery. In addition, the House budget includes a 2 percent salary increase for all state employees and directly funds some high-demand enrollments for CWU. We appreciate the support we've received from legislators throughout the state, particularly in these difficult economic times.

Peter Gries, CWU music department chair, sees the event as a way to further demonstrate the quality of the department's program.

"While we have long been known for the excellence of our music education program, the extraordinary quality of our ensembles is one of the best-kept musical secrets in the Northwest," Gries says. "This performance represents an effort to bring this into public awareness. It's also a way to develop scholarship resources, which have been severely affected by the stock market downturn, as all proceeds will be used for scholarships for next year's music majors."

Labeled "alarmingly complex," the 1977 composition calls for a large, unconventionally-arranged orchestra, a solo soprano, solo trombone, antiphonal children's voices, a male speaking choir, bell ringers and four conductors to coordinate all the work's various elements.

The Benaroya Hall concert will also feature the CWU wind ensemble performing "Harrison's Dream," a contemporary work by British composer Peter Graham and two short pieces by Percy Grainger; the chamber choir performing Ginastera's "Lamentations of Jeremiah," and the orchestra presenting Leonard Bernstein's "Dance Suite from West Side Story." Performances by the university's jazz choir, jazz band, brass ensembles and flute choir will complete the program.

Moawad, a CWU alumnus from Tacoma, is founder and chairman of Edge Learning Institute, a professional development firm that assists organizations maximize their human assets, increase productivity, manage change and achieve higher levels of customer satisfaction.

Moawad received two degrees from CWU: a bachelor's degree in health education in 1964 and a master's degree in physical education in 1967. While at Central, he served as student body vice president from 1962 to '63.

Moawad was named a university distinguished alumnus in 1994 and was inducted into the CWU Athletic Hall of Fame in 1996. In addition, he was named the Pierce County Small-Business Person of the Year in 1988 and the county's Washington Rotary Club 2002 Community Service Award winner.

More than 1,000 students are expected to participate in CWU graduation ceremonies in Ellensburg, slated for 10 a.m. at Tomlinson Stadium. Gates will open for family and friends at 8:15 a.m. A crowd of more than 7,000 is expected.

Pearson, a senior partner in the accounting firm of Ernst & Young, received his bachelor's degree in business administration in 1973 and rates his undergraduate days at CWU as "excellent."

"I haven't once found the technical background I was given here to be lacking," he adds. "The open class and campus atmosphere here allowed me to get to know my professors personally rather than just as faces in front of a classroom. They became -- and continue to be -- friends and advisors."

Pearson began his public accounting career in 1973 in Ernst & Young's Seattle office after graduating from Central. He is the firm's director of Assurance and Advisory Business Services (AABS) Standards and Methodology. In that role, he is responsible for the company's technical auditing guidance and its Global Audit Methodology.

From July 1983 through June 1985, Pearson served as a Practice Fellow at the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), where he helped develop accounting guidance on a variety of issues.

An estimated 250 graduates from CWU's Lynnwood, SeaTac and Steilacoom centers, along with friends and family members, will hear Pearson's address. Those centers are designed primarily to serve students whose professional or family obligations prevent them from leaving their communities.

Bachelor's degree programs are also offered at university centers in Wenatchee, Moses Lake and Yakima. More than 20 percent of CWU's graduates now earn their degrees at university centers.

"The reason for the freshmen admissions closure is that freshman applications continue to rise here at Central," Reilly notes. "They're up nearly 10 percent from this same time last year and 40 percent from just two years ago. That's unreal!"

To expedite the process, students are now being encouraged to apply for admission online at CWU's Web site, www.cwu.edu/~cwuadmis. The application is located in the "Admissions" section of that Web page.

Transfer student admission will not be affected by the admissions closure and will remain open until at least July 1, Reilly adds.

CWU fall quarter enrollment this year was 8,768 students, a 4.1 percent increase over the previous year. The freshman class of 1,347 was the largest in school history.