News - Local News

POSTED: Thursday, Sep. 17, 2009

WWU president says help needed to fix budget woes

BELLINGHAM - Money will be tight again at Western Washington University this school year, and it's up to university administration, staff and faculty to show the state that higher education is necessary.

University President Bruce Shepard hammered that message home Wednesday, Sept. 16, at the annual welcome address to faculty and staff.

During the speech, Shepard outlined work the university will continue this year, including high-quality teaching, work on the Bellingham waterfront, starting the Compass to Campus mentorship program with local fifth-graders, building transparent systems and creating plans for more graduate-level and international programs.

But, he added, if funding doesn't increase at the state level, fulfilling those goals and initiatives will be difficult.

Last school year, the state asked universities and colleges to make cuts in an effort to close a growing budget deficit. WWU cut about $3 million from the 2008-09 operating budget, as well as $6 million from the 2009-10 operating budget. A total of 164 positions were left unfilled and tuition was increased by $600 per quarter.

The state funds only about 43 percent of the new $128 million operating budget, compared to 60 percent in the 2007-09 biennium.

To help fix higher education funding across the state, Shepard said people at the university need to help make a better case for higher education in the legislature and make the need more visible with the public.

"Average voters see the affects of cuts to K-12 or to public assistance programs in their homes and neighborhoods every day," Shepard said. "They see no hurt to them, though, if higher education, particularly four-year higher education, is cut.

"Quality diminishes we know, tuition goes up, if we are forced to shrink, then fewer students may be able to attend. ... They see no consequences for their jobs, the vitality of their communities, the futures of their children."

Shepard said board of trustees and regents from the six universities that receive public funding are banding together to try to show people how higher education affects the economy, culture and livelihood of the state. One way to improve public perception to the need of four-year colleges may be strengthening partnerships with the two-year community and technical colleges across the state, Shepard said.

One of the most important things for WWU to do is to define itself as a "publicly purposed" university, Shepard said, one that works with the public in mind and shares what it does with them.

"We have the responsibility to drive the changes in positive directions," he said. "So please accept this invitation to join - to be a leader in - a discussion about what our university is to become."

STUDENTS RETURN

Western Washington University students will return to campus starting Friday, Sept. 18, with the busiest move-in day traditionally being Sunday.

About 4,000 students are expected to move into university residences, with about three-quarters of them new to WWU. Thousands of other students live off campus, mostly in southside neighborhoods surrounding WWU.

The first day of classes is Wednesday, Sept. 23.