"Higher Education Day 2003"
WSU Alumni Support New
Science/Education Buildings
and protecting quality existing programs
to promote a brighter state economic future
New buildings and protecting against deep cuts
tops the agenda of Washington
State University alumni who converged on the state capitol Wednesday to
participate in the annual “Higher Education Day” lobbying effort. The day comes as legislative leaders are working behind the scenes on
the state operating and capital construction budgets.
Representatives of the Washington State University Alumni Association, plus
alumni from the University of Washington, Western Washington University, The
Evergreen State College, Central Washington University, and Eastern Washington
University make up the event which includes a luncheon with legislators in
Olympia and an evening reception at the governor mansion. Collectively, the
alumni from the six institutions represent 470,000 graduates across the state.
Operating Budget: Alumni Urge Against Watering The Soup
Some
lawmakers are considering
cuts to higher education as the state faces a $2.6 billion budget shortfall. Over
the past decade, the state has steadily eroded state support to where
Washington now trails its
competitors by $1,877 per student. WSU is currently accepting more than 700
students that the state does not pay for and has turned away more than 2,000
qualified students for the first time in its history. Against the backdrop,
alumni are urging legislators to break their decade-long pattern of adding
enrollments and programs while cutting budgets. The core of vet school funding
was jeopardizes when Oregon decided to withdraw its students from WSU. With
budget cuts, legislators may look to tuition.
Capital
Construction Budget: The Evans-Gardner Approach Boosts Science/Education
Buildings
Alumni supported bills by former Governors Dan Evans and
Booth Gardner which would allow for many
Washington State University
buildings – many of them science buildings – to be built much sooner than
originally scheduled. Evans and Gardner were both scheduled to address alumni
during the day.
Combined
with the traditional capital construction budget for the four-year universities,
new university buildings provided in the Evans-Gardner package in the coming
years would include:
() The $35
million construction phase of the Johnson Hall Addition in Pullman by 2005.
() The
$11.16 million Cleveland Hall Addition by 2005.
() The
$35.2 million construction phase of the construction phase of the Spokane
Riverpoint Academic Center Building by 2005.
() A $10.7
million Wastewater Treatment Plant in Pullman by 2005.
() A $4.3
million Vancouver/Campus Infrastructure proposal.
() A $1.5
million Prosser
Multi-Purpose
Building now at construction stage.
All six
pending construction projects have been at risk in the legislative process. The
university was viewing the Spokane Academic Center, and the Wastewater Treatment
plant, the Vancouver Infrastructure proposal, and the Prosser Multi-Purpose
Building to be most at risk as alumni were gathering for Higher Education Day.
However,
the Evans-Gardner proposal would utilize low interest rates and broaden the base
of the state’s debt limit to assure construction of other key WSU buildings
during the next decade. Those include:
() The
Biotechnology/Life Science Facility, currently in design phase but under-funded
by $3.5 million in the Governor’s request.
() A
Biomedical Sciences Facility, currently at pre-design in the governor’s budget.
() A
Tri-Cities Bio-products and and Sciences Building to be jointly occupied with
Pacific Northwest National Laboratories (Battelle), now in pre-design.
() A
Prosser Agricultural Bio-sciences Building, the first major building to be built
at an agricultural experiment station in more than 50 years.
() WSU
Vancouver Business Education Building
() A WSU
building on the campus of
Pasco’s
Columbia Basin College
() A New
College of Nursing
Building
at the Spokane Riverpoint Campus
