June 26, 2001

Contact: Greg Kummer (509-963-1423/fax 509-963-3460/email: campusbullet@cwu.edu)

ELLENSBURG, Wash. - No more standing in line for practice rooms. An end to tuba players in the band uniform space. A stop to percussion performers crammed into storage rooms.

Sometime near the end of 2003, Central Washington University's department of music should be moving into a new building, thanks to hard work by faculty, staff, students administrators, legislators, alumni and others.

Gov. Gary Locke today signed Washington state's 2001-2003 budget, which included funding for the music education building.

"We feel the legislature was particularly sensitive to Central's needs, and supportive considering the tough budget year," CWU President Jerilyn S. McIntyre, said. "We are especially pleased with the capital budget."

A number of state legislators who were supportive of the music facility included representatives Gary Alexander (R-Olympia), Mike Armstrong (R-Wenatchee), Gary Chandler (R-Moses Lake), Pat Lantz (D-Gig Harbor), Joyce Mulliken (R-Ephrata) and Ed Murray (D-Seattle), and Sen. Harold Hochstatter (R-Moses Lake).

"Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Terrific, terrific, terrific," CWU music department chair Peter Gries said after hearing the building was included in the capital budget.

The new facility is needed to accommodate the university's rapidly expanding music education program. The current building, Hertz Hall, was constructed in 1963 to accommodate only 150 students. The program is expected to enroll 326 students by 2010. The facility also lacks the infrastructure to adapt to changing music technologies. Records were cutting-edge technology when the facility was built, long before anyone imagined synthesizers, the Internet or digital recording technology.

The program also serves as a valuable cultural resource for the central Washington region. Each year, the music department presents approximately 200 public performances and invites more than 10,000 high school students to participate in music festivals on the Ellensburg campus.

The CWU music education program trains 250 undergraduate and graduate students each year. Educators from the program teach in almost every school district in the state and throughout the entire Northwest region. In Washington state today, CWU music graduates teach more than 250,000 students each year. This year's graduates have been hired by school districts including Yakima, Port Townsend, Cascade, Kent, Clark County, White Salmon, Lake Washington, Bethel, Richland, Bellevue, Snoqualmie, Olympia, Puyallup, Kennewick, Tahoma and Mercer Island.

"With the many recent advances in music technology, these students need access to classrooms and facilities that use modern technology," Rep. Lantz said. "We've been working to include this project in the capital budget for years. I'm elated that it's finally happening."

The building's Phase I, which was funded for 2001-2003 at $14 million, consists of a functional building containing the 600-seat concert hall, 150-seat recital hall, four rehearsal rooms, an entry lobby, locker storage, performance library, administration wing, restrooms and mechanical spaces. It addresses health and safety issues arising from crowding and excessive use of performance venues in the current building. It does not include needed equipment and furnishings, which would be part of Phase II the following biennium.

Central, in the 2001-2003 operating budget, received $89 million in state funds, including $700,000 in one-time funds to address student recruitment/retention. An additional $40 million will be generated from tuition and fees. Tuition will increase by 6.7 percent the first year and as much as 6.1 percent the second year.

Faculty and staff will receive 3.7 percent salary increases the first year.

"We're happy that it's finally done," Abdul Nasser, CWU vice president for business and financial affairs, said of the budget process. "Given the budget restrictions the legislature had to work with, we're pretty happy with the results."