In an email sent out to “Members of the UW Community” yesterday, University of Washington President Michael Young lays out what lies ahead for the university as the legislature heads into special session to hammer out a supplemental budget that closes an additional projected $2 billion shortfall. The UW has already seen its state funding slashed in half over the past three years, from $400 million to $200 million, but it sure does sound like Young has been warned to expect even worse when Gov. Chris Gregoire releases her preliminary list of proposed cuts later this week:
The numbers that come out for higher education and the University of Washington will look draconian, and we hope, needless to say, not where the final budget ends up. We are watching this process closely and are in regular communication with the Governor’s office and legislative leadership. … We have a long way to go in this process, and there may be alarming news along the way about what some of the proposals that emerge may mean for the University and the State.
Democrats and Republicans alike need to seriously ask themselves: “What kind of state do I want Washington to be?” And if they’re satisfied with a Washington with a second-rate and/or unaffordable higher education system, then they should continue to keep new revenue off the table.
Michael Young. Michael Young.
Same as the Texas Rangers’ SS-2B-3B-1B-DH.
I’m sure UW can’t afford to cut any administration, so any cuts will go right to tuition increases.
governor eyman & republican legislators have already answered that question.
Is the UW really a public institution any more? Their budget is something like 5 billion, though a good chunk of that is the medical side of things, and the state gives them only 200 million.
@1: I blame our state’s declining education system. Either that, or posting before I’ve had my first cup of tea.
@2 The first round of cuts in ’08 were mostly targeted at administration. The rest of the cuts since then have been across the board, plus monster tuition hikes. Gregoire and the dems seem bound and determined to gut our state’s educational system, so much so, that McKenna wants to hike state support of higher ed.
When the Republican wants to raise higher ed budgets, you know things are messed up.
The cascading effect will be felt for decades. Washington students will not be able to afford a college education; fewer students get the education they need to go into good paying jobs; Microsoft and other large employers import more foreign workers on H2b visas to fill the artificial lack of skilled technical workers, pushing even more state workers into un- and underemployment; the tax base shrinks further; deeper cuts are made to “public” higher education; fewer students get the education they need….
And yet, banks will get a very hefty deduction to the B & O taxes, because Olympia apparently thinks they are far more important that college students: see http://www.eoionline.org/tax_reform/fact…
Nothing will change to make this better. And it’s just going to get worse. And keep in mind this is with the Democrats in control. Can you imagine the hell if the GOP was in control?
From which college did Bill Gates get his degree?
Democrats need to keep pushing votes on revenues. Keep Republican’ts on record as opposing quality of life issues.
At this point budget cuts means cutting entire programs, if the cuts continue at percentages the UW has faced in the last few years. It also means reducing the out of class offerings, which means it will take students longer to enroll in required classes, which turns into more quarters enrolled at higher and higher tuition prices.
The legislature said years ago that they wanted UW to act more like a business, and this is the result: higher tuitions force out WA students and shift is more to out-of-state students who can afford to pay.
Well, this is interesting.
Because the UW is funding a program just for Teach for America recruits for alternative certification to become a teacher. Our largest public university has a program for a group of people that is pre-selected by a private group and NO one else in the state can be in the program.
And guess what? Between Seattle Schools and Federal Way schools they hired…11 recruits.
A whole program through the College of Education for 11 people who are mostly not from our state and are not helping our teaching pool expand (given that most of them skip out after their two-stint).
Gee, President Young, are you going to cut funds for that little slush program? How do you justify that when you raise tuition rates for in-state students?
Shit.
@9 Same one as the murderer Billy Chambers. A sample size of one is meaningless.
Onward to America’s race to the bottom!!!
When developmentally-disabled adults are going to have all services cut–everything: medical, housing, whatever–I could not care less about whether university tuition goes up and programs are cut.
And the programs will be cut because that’s what the U has to do; it can’t cut individual tenured faculty unless the program they work for is chopped. The individuals the U will cut are non-faculty.
@16 that’s foolish. Slicing into (human) capital to pay for today’s service consumption is gonna leave the whole state permanently poorer in the long run.
I walked by all the shiny new glass buildings down by UW Medical Center back in September. All I can say is one giant middle finger to Young and his ilk. If you need more money, quit spending millions of dollars on new buildings and stick with the ones you have. Seriously. It shouldn’t cost $40K+ in tuition to go to a state school. Slash your construction budget. It will get better. Wait five years.