WSU, WASHINGTON STUDENT LOBBY WORK
FOR LOW TUITION POLICY
With the introduction of many bills
that would substantially raise tuition, WSU and the Washington
Student Lobby, which represents students from five four-year institutions
(except The Evergreen State College) are working on a plan for
an affordable, predictable tuition proposal. The plan, which will
soon be introduced in bill form, would call for no tuition increase
next year, a modest 3 percent increase in 1998-99, and tie future
tuition increases to the Consumer Price Index for subsequent years,
capping it at 5 percent per year. Perhaps most importantly, WSU
and WSL are seeking legislation that would ensure that funds for
tuition increases are spent at higher education institutions and
are not deposited in the general fund to address the problems
of all of state government. WSU, WSL, and the state Board for
Community and Technical Colleges have testified against most other
tuition increase proposals, maintaining that "Low tuition
is the best form of financial aid."
HOUSE APPROVES LEGISLATION TO ENLARGE
THE LIND WHEAT EXPERIMENT STATION
Legislation that would transfer approximately
1,000 acres of farmland to Washington State University to expand
the Lind dryland research station was overwhelmingly approved
by the state House of Representatives 97-0. The legislation, Substitute
House Bill 1016, was introduced at the request of Washington State
University and the Washington Wheat Commission. It now goes to
the Senate Natural Resources and Parks Committee, which has held
a hearing on an identical measure, Senate Bill 5174, sponsored
by Sen. Gene Prince, R-Thornton. The Lind station currently is
comprised of just 320 acres which is inadequate for the type of
research being conducted. Yet the climate of Lind is more relevant
to 60 percent of Washington wheat production land than any other
significant experiment station in the state. In fact, Lind is
believed to have the driest climate of any wheat research unit
in the United States. The opportunity for expanding the station
occurred when the will of the late Cleola Neare provided her
Lind farmland to the state Treasurer to be used for the good of
the state. Willing property to an unspecified state agency is
rare, happening four times in the last 25 years. Without legislation,
the state DNR will probably receive the land and likely transfer
it into state trust lands.
LEGISLATION MOVING TO INCREASE THE
PRICE OF COUGAR LICENSE PLATES
If you haven't yet purchased your WSU
license plate, you might want to act before the Legislature completes
its work on Substitute House Bill 1008. The legislation overwhelmingly
passed the House Transportation Policy & Budget Committee
and is awaiting action on the House floor. The legislation, sponsored
by Rep. Eric Robertson, would increase the initial fee for WSU
license plates from $30 to $40. WSU has worked to maintain at
least the renewal fee of the popular plates at $30, which is provided
for in the current bill. Currently $2 of the $30 fee goes to the
state Department of Licensing and $28 is used for WSU scholarships.
Robertson says that the $2 can not begin to cover the costs of
producing specialized license plates, especially because sales
of some special license plates have been disappointing and DOL
is required to produce a minimum of 700 plates for each series.
Few legislators, however, have questioned the success of the WSU
license plates. DOL reports that 6,605 WSU plates have been sold,
by far the most popular of the collegiate license plates sold.
The $28 received by WSU from each plate has resulted in 243 student
scholarships, usually awarded to meritorious or needy students.
Eighty-six of the scholarship recipients have been community college
transfer students, about one-third of the recipients are from
WSU branch campus communities.
CAPITAL BUDGET UPDATE - FULMER HALL
RENOVATION PROJECT IN JEOPARDY
A two-hour hearing was held last week
on the WSU construction budget by the House Capital Budget Committee
chaired by Rep. Barry Sehlin. President Sam Smith noted for the
committee that 96 percent of the construction requests for the
Pullman campus were for renovation of current buildings or for
infrastructure such as roads, telecommunications, utilities, etc.
The committee is working to try to put together a construction
package for state government that is less than recommended by
outgoing Gov. Mike Lowry. But WSU has urged the committee to consider
adding construction dollars to complete renovation of WSU's Pullman
chemistry building, Fulmer Hall, plus funding the design of a
Vancouver Media/Electronic Communications Building and a Tri-Cities
Science Education Center. The are also efforts to add a small
Tri-Cities Horn Rapids construction project, the Center for Agricultural
Systems Evaluation (CASE.)
ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY INITIATIVE GETTING
FAVORABLE REVIEWS - HB 1444 and SB 5443
Hearings now have been held in both
houses on the proposed "Advanced Technology Initiative"
supported by the University of Washington and Washington State
University. The $9 million proposal, which is picking up support
from more business groups and legislators, would create five
research "clusters" at the two institutions to concentrate
on specific areas of technology transfer.
