Posts Tagged ‘state budget cuts’
Wednesday, April 13th, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
The front-page story on SeattlePI.com right now is a five-page (!) article on dwindling public support for higher education in Washington, and, by extension, the west coast.
It’s a comprehensive piece that gives a fuller context to the catch-22 this generation is caught in: It takes a college education to get a job that pays good wages, but to afford a college education, you’d need a job that pays good wages.
It also takes a good look at why the University of Washington and other colleges are recruiting more out-of-state students.
(more…)
Tags: budget cuts, colleges, out-of-state, state budget cuts, state news, tuition increases, universities, university of washington, Washington state, washington state legislature, west coast
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Sunday, April 10th, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
The quote comes from a blistering Associated Press article about Washington’s budget crisis and its effect on higher ed, released today.
From the article:
Statistics show that college graduates experience lower unemployment and score higher-earning jobs than people without four-year degrees, and a college-educated labor force has historically been the driving force behind economic growth. Yet state lawmakers target higher education during rough budget years for a simple reason: “Because we can,” said Rep. Larry Haler, R-Richland, ranking Republican on the House Higher Education committee.
Some administrators are relieved to see that the operating budgets for state colleges don’t suffer much under the House’s plan — and Western arguably got off the easiest of any university this time around.
But the reason the budgets don’t suffer much, as the AP points out, is that state colleges make up for lost dollars almost entirely through tuition increases.
Those increases will compound to a 28 percent increase in tuition over the next two years. To put that in perspective, in most classes that’s the difference between a D+ and a solid A.
The AP also spoke with a Western student about how cuts would impact her personally.
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Tags: Associated Press, budget cuts, HEC board, operating budget, state budget cuts, tuition, tuition hikes, tuition increases
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Thursday, March 3rd, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
In an effort to sidestep “the complicated web of state regulations” that public universities often find themselves entangled in, some colleges are seeking new sources of income to make up for huge cuts in state funding, the New York Times is reporting.
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Tags: national news, public universities, state budget cuts, state funding
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Saturday, February 19th, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
This is likely the final post in a series exploring e-mails sent in the last six months by Western President Bruce Shepard.
This is also an especially sensitive post. I don’t want to take anything out of context, so I encourage you to read the e-mail conversation in full. There is a link at the bottom of this post.
If you read Thursday’s entry, you might remember a thing or two from the correspondence between Shepard and UPRC Chair Jeff Newcomer.
But you would need a photographic memory to remember that Scott Pearce, president of Western’s faculty senate, was cc:-ed in Shepard’s second-to-last e-mail.
Pearce responded with a head turner.
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Tags: Scott Pearce, state budget cuts, The Bruce Files, UPRC
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Friday, February 18th, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
I think this one wins the prize for lengthiest e-mail.
So here’s a quick timeline:
First: President Bruce Shepard sends out a 1200-word message to campus staff on Aug. 18. It’s bad news from Olympia about the budget. Western must act quickly to make cuts.
“Given the truncated time period, though, there must be adjustments to our usual processes,” Shepard says. “We will need to find other ways to assure full communication, transparency, and openness.”
(more…)
Tags: Jeff Newcomer, state budget cuts, The Bruce Files, UPRC
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Wednesday, February 16th, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
Seattle’s only daily newspaper effectively said this weekend that the Guaranteed Education Tuition program needs serious reforms.
From the editorial:
In having this discussion, Washington is following a trend set by other states forced to close their prepaid-tuition plans or change the terms to address rapidly rising tuition costs. In this new fiscally sobering era, Washington legislators are right to question whether state-backed tuition guarantees are feasible.
It is unlikely this state will return anytime soon to robust economic growth and moderate tuition increases. Changing the GET program before it lands in financial trouble makes sense.
For more background on the issue, the Front recently ran a story about GET, and I blogged about it a few days before that.
Tags: editorials, GET program, state budget cuts
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Saturday, February 5th, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
Not breaking any news in this blog post, but I might give some hints. Today I received a large stack of public records. And, well, they’re pretty much loaded with good stories.
I’ll be sharing much of what doesn’t make it into full articles on this blog.
Here’s what I’ve got:
-Steering committee agendas from the long-overdue Buchanan Towers East project. They’re full of outright criticism of Ebenal General, Inc.
-A document on athletic travel expenses. There’s actually some positive news to report, unless you were a big football fan, on how much has been saved in the last few years.
-E-mails sent by President Bruce Shepard about budget cuts. Many of them have to do with the music library, the 14 majors that were cut in September and what’s been going on in Olympia. I’d also requested any e-mails about Buchanan Towers, but received nothing. We’ll get into that.
Tags: athletics, Bruce Shepard, Buchanan Towers East, Public records, state budget cuts
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Wednesday, February 2nd, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
A state program that helps parents to lock in the price of tuition years before their child attends college is under threat, the Seattle Times reports today.
Several legislators said they are considering bills that would radically change the Guaranteed Education Tuition program, which has become a costly burden on the state.
(more…)
Tags: GET program, state budget cuts, tuition increases, Washington state
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Tuesday, January 18th, 2011
Caleb Hutton // THE WESTERN FRONT
Ten state properties, among them a former mental hospital in Sedro-Woolley, will soon be up for sale as officials try to meet a $5 billion budget shortfall, the Seattle Times reports.
Built in the early 1900s, the Northern State Hospital currently houses several nonprofits and government agencies. (more…)
Tags: mental hospital, real estate, Sedro-Woolley, state budget cuts
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