News - Local News

POSTED: Wednesday, Nov. 19, 2008

Washington colleges brace for cuts, WWU to slash up to 12 percent

OLYMPIA - The state Office of Financial Management has asked state colleges to develop plans for a 20 percent cut in expected spending, which would add up to about $600 million over the next two years.

That would likely cut thousands of students from the state's 34 community and technical colleges, and probably put a hold on the University of Washington's plans to double enrollment at campuses in Bothell and Tacoma, The Seattle Times reports.

On Wednesday, Nov. 19, the state Revenue Forecast Council announced that the state faces a $5.1 billion budget deficit and has a projected decficit of $4.6 billion for the next two-year budget.

State higher-education money is the biggest purse of unprotected dollars in the state's budget. Other state services, such as K-12 education and prisons, are protected by state or federal mandates.

For Western Washington University, the 20 percent reduction will come out of the 60 percent of the operating budget from the state. That means a 12 percent reduction to the university's 2009-11 operating budget.

Even if the university were to raise tuition the maximum amount allowed by law, 7 percent, there would still be a reduction needed of about 9 percent.

In a letter to the campus Wednesday, WWU President Bruce Shepard explained the situation and asked people for input on the processes that will be used to determine cuts.

The exact dollar amount the university will be required to cut won't be known until December. The university already cut $2 million from the budget for the current year, but these cuts are on top of that.

"The budget situation is extraordinarily serious," Shepard wrote in the campus letter. "We must not let that fact paralyze us, though. ... This is the time to be ever more clear about our core priorities and where, as a university, we intend to be in the future."

At the UW, a 20 percent cut in state funding would mean a loss of $167 million over the next two years. That would mean larger class sizes, fewer programs and perhaps fewer students.

"The biggest problem with the higher-education budget is that this is when it's most needed," said UW President Mark Emmert. "The best way to drive forward the economy is through education and innovation."

Charlie Earl, the executive director of the state Board for Community and Technical Colleges, said state officials asked the agency to run a scenario that cuts some $300 million from the $1.5 billion biennial budget for the state's 34 community and technical colleges.

He said that at a minimum, colleges would need to cut about 6,000 full-time students enrolled beyond the 139,000 funded by the state, and end the policy of opening the doors to all eligible students. Earl said there would also be job cuts and course reductions.

Larry Ganders, assistant to the president at Washington State University, said it has already started to reduce the total number of courses by one-fifth in anticipation of a lean budget and to focus on priority courses.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, noted that "when there is an economic downturn, people want to go back to school."

"We have to look at the economy and what people need," she said. "I think they're going to need higher education as an option when the work force is tenuous and changing like it is. I hope we can come up with some other ways to avoid that serious of a cut."

Bellingham Herald reporter Kira Millage contributed to this story.