Posting the
Rawlins Legacy
Lane Rawlins' seven years as president was capped with one of
the most successful legislative sessions in the history of
WSU. If legislators see freshmen students attending WSU
Vancouver, a new pedestrian mall down the center of the Pullman
campus, a new UW medical school students in Spokane, a
reinvigorated apple breeding program, ten new scientists working
on biofuels at WSU Tri-Cities, or a new WSU PhD nursing
student...they know it happened with a big push from a WSU
president.
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May 10, 2007 No. 19
Olympia perspective
on the Rawlins
presidency
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Legislature
adjourns Sunday sine die
It was the session that the governor told legislators to go to
school on education, from early learning to graduate school. It
proved to be more controversial for P-12 and a productive
session for higher education.
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April 23, 2007 No. 18
Notes at adjournment
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Final
conference puzzle solved: A $508.6 million operating budget for
WSU
Student enrollments will increase on all campuses for a total
of 850 new WSU slots, agricultural research will be boosted by
$5.3 million, and salaries will bump up by an average of 3.2
percent on Sept. 1. Its all part of the final compromise
operating budget bill unveiled April 21. All in all,
House-Senate leaders decided to fund a multitude of new programs
at WSU from bio-products to medical education to small business
assistance that were parts of various House, Senate, and
Governor's budget plans. But in an apparent effort to fund as
many programs as possible, the budget for many major requests
were trimmed. Nevertheless, the result is a 17.9 percent
increase in state funding for the university in the next
biennium.
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April 22, 2007 No. 17
Compromise operating budget
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Legislature
poised to pass record WSU construction budget.
Construction dollars to finish the Pullman Life Sciences
building is the highlight of a record $180.6 million WSU
construction budget released late last night by Senate and House
negotiators.
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April 21, 2007 No. 16
Compromise capital budget
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Legislature
approves WSU constitutional amendment for ballot. Spring
blooms are starting to fall from the "sine die" tree as the
Legislature may be entering its final days. Today is the final
day for most bills to pass the Legislature in some form. The
WSU-sponsored constitutional amendment that allows for trust
land permanent funds to be invested partly in stocks has been
approved by the Legislature. It now goes to the voters.
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April 13, 2007 No. 15
Bills must pass both houses
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The big three
issues for WSU in House-Senate operating budget negotiations.
Negotiations are under way between House-Senate negotiators over
the 2007-2009 biennial operating budget (House Bill 1128.) The
Senate version passed 30-17 on Saturday. The House version
passed 62-35 on March 26. There are dozens of differences
between the two WSU budgets. However, Washington State
University is urging lawmakers to give a priority on three key
issues before setting WSU’s final budget.
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April 2, 2007 No. 14
Conference Negotiations
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Senate budget
news bittersweet. Senate leaders Wednesday proposed a
2007-2009 operating budget for Washington State University,
providing some tasty enhancements but disappointments that will
be harder to swallow. The Senate budget provides substantially
more enrollments than the other budgets. However, tuition funds
that normally go for student support have been diverted to pay
for base salaries of faculty and staff. Agriculture research
funding is far below the House level. The budget provides for a
7 percent tuition increase.
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March 29, 2007 No. 13
Senate Operating Budget Proposal
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House
Appropriations proposes $515 million operating budget for WSU
next biennium with more money for agricultural research. A
new operating budget bill boosts new funding for agricultural
research from the governor's level of $3 million to $9.5
million.
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March 22, 2007 No. 12
House Operating Budget Proposal
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Rep. Fromhold
proposes $180 million construction budget for WSU. $58
million for the Pullman Life Sciences building, $29 million in
new funding for the WSU Vancouver campus, and $59 million in
critical dollars to improve and preserve existing facilities are
winning approval in the state House of Representatives.
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March 19, 2007 No. 11
House Capital Budget Proposal
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House overwhelmingly
approves WSU constitutional amendment. Substitute House
Joint Resolution 4215 passed the state House of Representatives
last week, easily garnering the necessary two-thirds house
majority on a 92-2 vote. Today is the final day for bills that
do not have budget impact to pass the originating house. The
House operating and capital budgets are expected to be out next
week.
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March 14, 2007 No. 10
Floor Cut-Off of 2007 Session
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House Subcommittee
funds Spokane medical students, Vancouver Engineering. The
WSU partnership with the University of Washington and Eastern
Washington University to create more education programs that
produce additional doctors and dentists has been recommended for
funding. There are 55 new health science students added to the
WSU budget in the proposal. Start-up funding for Electrical
Engineering at WSU Vancouver is included. It provides 815 new
total enrollments for the WSU system, 87 percent of the WSU
request. Here's the report on Feb. 28, the deadline for bills to
pass out of the original policy committee.
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February 28, 2007 No. 9
First Cut-Off of 2007 Session
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WSU
Constitutional Amendment Introduced. A state
constitutional amendment to allow equity investment in
higher education permanent fund trust monies has been
introduced in each house of the Legislature at the request
of WSU.
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February 5, 2007 No. 8
Bolstering Capital Investment
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Gregoire
proposes historic higher education budget. A 2007-2009
biennial budget proposed today by Gov. Christine Gregoire
would deliver Washington State University its best operating
budget package in years and the most state construction
funding in WSU history.
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December 19, 2006 No. 7
Governor's proposed budget
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Democrats' tide
hits Legislature. The tide that flowed for Democrats
nationally has seeped into the Washington legislative
election, giving Gov. Christine Gregoire’s political party a
commanding majority of both houses of the Washington
Legislature.
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November 9, 2006 No. 6
Election Results
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PNNL, WSDA and
WSU push $6.7 million biofuels and bioproducts program.
The budget request that promotes manufacture of fuels from
Washington-grown crops and forest products was supported by
President Lane Rawlins last week in discussions with the
governor’s budget staff here in Olympia. The 2006
Legislature assisted new fuel plants being built in this
state to relieve reliance on foreign petroleum products. But
some of these plants still rely on palm oil and other
“feedstock” materials imported from countries like
Indonesia, Malaysia, and Canada. This proposal was drafted
by WSU, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, and the
Washington State Department of Agriculture.
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October 18, 2006 No. 5
WSU Bioproducts Partnership with
PNNL
and WSDA
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Universities unite to educate future health professionals in
Spokane. More Doctors, Dentists and Nurses for the
Inland Northwest: A cost-effective plan for educating
doctors and dentists in Spokane was presented to the state
Higher Education Coordinating Board Thursday by WSU
President Lane Rawlins and UW President Mark Emmert. Keeping
with their tradition of the research institutions working
together, Emmert and Rawlins delivered the institutional
budget requests jointly before the board, sitting side by
side. To punctuate their cooperation, the presidents
described a program with the University of Washington,
Washington State University and Eastern Washington
University working cooperatively. Together, they requested
$12.8 million for expansion of programs into Spokane. It is
the first major resident enrollment expansion of the UW
School of Medicine in 30 years. WSU submitted an additional
request for nurses, including a Phd program based in
Spokane.
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September 29, 2006 No. 4
Joint proposal for more health care
professionals
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