Public Relations and Marketing

Guest Editorial: CWU President Jerilyn S. McIntyre

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - When Gov. Locke signed the supplemental operating budget for the 2002-2003 fiscal year, it was the culmination of a legislative session that was difficult for all state agencies, including public higher education. A deepening statewide economic crisis was the backdrop for decisions that led to this supplemental budget. At Central Washington University, we are now assessing the impact of that crisis on public higher education generally and on Central Washington University specifically, for the short term as well as for the long term.

The Impact on Central Washington University: Central Washington University began this academic year in a particularly difficult situation because of cuts that were sustained as we entered the current biennium. Last year, Central enrolled fewer students than the estimated number for which the state had funded us. To ensure that we would not spend money we later had to return, we “rebased” our budget to an enrollment that made sense in the context of last year’s smaller numbers. This action, combined with other state-level cuts and unfunded mandates, resulted in a 6 percent reduction in our state funding for the current biennium. In contrast, the other state public baccalaureate institutions experienced a 2 percent reduction.

It now appears that our enrollment downturn was temporary. In fact, we now have about 200 full-time equivalent students more than we are funded to serve. And we anticipate an even bigger enrollment next year, partly because the young people who constitute the “baby boom echo” are entering college, and partly because at Central we have strategically put additional resources and energy into our recruiting efforts. The bottom line is that we are educating considerably more students than our budget supports.

Even before the current statewide fiscal crisis developed, we were tightening our belts at CWU while reminding ourselves that our priorities were to maintain our student-focused mission, preserve quality, ensure access, and protect our human and physical resources. We have put in place a very successful energy conservation program, which has resulted in considerable reductions in energy consumption. We have offered early retirement buyout programs for faculty. We have reduced the number of course offerings by slightly increasing class size.

And yet, in view of recent revenue forecasts for the state, and in the interest of fiscal restraint, the governor has asked us to do even more. He has asked presidents of higher education institutions to freeze hiring, travel, and equipment purchases except those essential to our operation.

In compliance with the Governor’s Directive, I have put in place a hiring freeze at Central Washington University and am reviewing all requests for exceptions. I have established specific criteria that will guide the university in granting exceptions for travel and equipment purchases. As I review requests to fill vacant positions, my priorities continue to be to maintain current levels of service, respond to student demand for courses needed to make timely progress toward graduation, and protect the state’s investment in our physical plant.

With the governor’s signature on the supplemental operating budget, we now know we will face an additional 5 per cent cut to our state funding for 2002-2003. At the same time, the governor and legislators have granted authority to university boards of trustees and regents to increase tuition to levels that would compensate for the cut in state funds. For CWU, an increase in tuition between 13 and 14 percent for resident undergraduate students is required to offset the 5 percent cut in state support. With great regret, I will therefore be recommending a tuition increase in this range to the CWU board of trustees, which has the final authority to set tuition for the institution.

This recommendation is not made lightly. The other members of the president’s cabinet and I entered our discussions of tuition policy with the resolve that we would not raise tuition to the maximum. However, Gov. Locke’s veto of the $350,000 included in the legislature’s budget to support CWU’s enrollment recovery efforts has taken away that option. Our obligation to maintain program quality and access is paramount. If we have additional cuts in the next academic year, we could very easily be faced with the necessity of reducing already-stretched faculty and staff numbers, reducing programs, growing to considerably larger class sizes, or turning away qualified students.

The State Picture: All of the impact on Central is precipitated by the unfolding crisis in the state’s economy. As the recently concluded legislative session progressed, revenue forecasts grew increasingly pessimistic. Near the end of the session, the Office of the Forecast Counsel reported that the state would receive at least $1.5 billion less in revenue than was originally projected for the current and next budget cycles.

Washington state has been particularly hard hit in this economic recession, but our state is not alone. Most state legislatures are dealing with budget deficits. Other state legislatures forwarded proposals similar to those we saw in our own legislative session. Higher education funding was on the table everywhere as states sought ways to ensure vital social services and fund K-12 education systems. The budget crisis is national, not a state or local trend, but state budget problems are expected to last longer than the last national recession that occurred in the early 1990s.

To their credit, Gov. Locke and our legislators looked for ways to protect higher education from extreme cuts, and, in the end, higher education was less hard hit than many other social agencies and programs. Still, short of raising taxes, elected officials were faced with very difficult choices, and they could not fully protect anyone in the current budget climate.

The Solution: This is not a new funding crisis for higher education in the state of Washington. In the past decade alone, state support for higher education has shrunk even when the state’s coffers have been fairly full. It is deeply troubling that students are bearing a considerably greater percentage of the cost of their education than they were a decade ago. That is why my colleagues and I on the Council of Presidents, as well as our regents and trustees, are joining with former governors Dan Evans and Booth Gardner, our presidential colleagues at the state’s community colleges, and other public officials in calling on the legislature and the governor to develop a tuition policy that will ensure more predictable sources of state funding for higher education.

Our elected officials understand, as most citizens do, that funding of higher education, with its ability to create new jobs, attract new industries, and train workers for new opportunities in a changing environment, is an investment in the state’s present and its future. They know that higher education is crucial to economic re-growth and workforce development. They know that it helps find solutions to pressing social problems, and provides cultural resources for our surrounding communities. They know that, in periods of economic crisis, laid-off workers depend on colleges and universities to provide avenues for retraining. They know that higher education faces the challenge of providing enough seats to serve the children of the baby-boom echo while also extending educational opportunity to all citizens of our state, regardless of their age, race, ethnicity, or socio-economic background.

The future stability of state support for public higher education is important to everyone, not just those who are current students or employees of our public colleges and universities. This is a public policy issue of paramount importance to Washington’s long-term economic and intellectual future.

It is a problem for which a solution must be found — for the long-term good of all of Washington’s citizens.

Back to the 'News & Headlines' page.

* * *