Rotary of Seattle, Page 6

Last Friday, that is where I ended an initial draft of my remarks. 

Not today, though, for I come to you this afternoon having spent the earlier part of the week in Olympia. 

Good people in Olympia are struggling with difficult choices.  Now, I am one who never felt it got higher education anywhere to whine about problems, budget or otherwise.  Instead, we must talk, as I have today, about our capacities to be part of the solution and not part of the problem. But, none of us in higher education have ever seen what we now believe will be proposed by the legislature at the end of this week or the beginning of next week. 

It is the view in Olympia – and I share it – that our state really has not yet grasped the magnitude of what is happening.  I conclude by attempting to help with that grasping.

It took decades to build Western from a regional to a premier destination university.  But, universities cannot just be temporarily mothballed and then, later, started back up. 

Consider this history:   In the early 80’s, Washington experienced, by far, the largest cuts to higher education before or since: 13%.  Tuition was raised 16%.   How long did it take before higher education in Washington recovered, before student enrollments returned to the earlier, pre-cut levels?  Almost a decade and a half.

We are expecting to hear that higher education’s budget will be cut by twice the size of that historically unprecedented earlier number.  ACTUALLY, MORE THAN TWICE IF DEVELOPMENTS THIS MORNING STICK!  And without the magnitude of that 16% tuition offset earlier relied upon. 

Have no doubt, this would require cutting muscle and bone, not trimming fat.  This is a state with a public system of higher education that, in independent national studies, always comes out as at the top in degree production and cost efficiency.  And, quality. 

As requested, I have talked about the potential for transformation and for transforming.  In the next biennium, dismantling looks to be the theme.

While there are several other states talking about cuts nearly as dramatic as those we are expecting will be proposed, these are not states in whose neighborhoods we would want to live.  They are not the global challenge states we think of as our peers.  New York, Texas, California  are not planning to cut back their higher education systems nearly as sharply as we expect to soon hear is necessary in Washington.  California: 10% cut with 9% tuition backfill; Washington: 25% to 30% cut with 7% tuition backfill. 

As the economy turns around, who will be positioned to compete globally?  And, who will not? 

You, the leaders in our state, … you, who have insisted upon sustained investment in brighter futures, … you who get the link between higher education and our capacity to afford high quality of life and commitment to social justice, need to be heard in Olympia. 

I now look forward to your questions.  Please do move me outside my comfort zone.

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