December 18, 2008 Budget Update

Colleagues,

This morning, the Governor released her budget for the remainder of the current fiscal year and for the next biennium.  While it will take some time to sift through the details, we currently understand that the budget, as it pertains to Western, would have these implications:

• On the positive side, our three top capital projects (Miller Hall, Carver, and the Armory) are included. 
• Turning to the operating budget where the revenue sources and fiscal challenges are very different, the Governor"s budget would fund no increases in compensation.
• The operating budget reduction for the year we are currently in is as I have previously reported to you and is included in the following figures I report for the next biennium.
• Our state support for the next biennium would be reduced by 14%.
• Tuition would increase by the current statutory maximum of 7% per year.  That is equivalent to an increase for each student of about $100 more per quarter in each year.
• We would not be required to use tuition increases to grow enrollments.  This is a critical point and was not a foregone conclusion.  It means that the additional revenues from tuition can be used to help protect quality and services for current students.
• When the reduction in state support and the tuition increase are factored into our overall operating budget, that nets out to about a 5% reduction in our operating budget.

The proposed net reduction of 5% is very serious.  It is larger, significantly larger, than any this university has experienced in recent decades.  Yet, the Governor has, in my view, acted with courage and vision under very difficult circumstances in making politically hard choices to spread the pain.  She recognizes that higher education is part of the solution and not part of the problem and her budget reflects that recognition.  We must all continue to work hard to assure that this recognition persists through what will be a protracted budget process.

The hard work of responding to the Governor"s proposal now lies ahead.  Thanks to the efforts of so many (including several hundred of you), we have the processes, principles, and guidelines in place to proceed strategically and transparently.  They are available at http://www.acadweb.wwu.edu/upa/default.htm

Our collegially developed approaches specify bottom up, open, and transparent planning.  The structures and cultures within each vice presidential area vary and each area has the flexibility to determine what works best in particular areas. However, the requirement of being open, transparent, and consistent with stated principles and strategic analyses remains, and vice presidents have already been actively engaging colleagues in preparing the principles, analyses, and strategies for adjusting budgets. 

Further, within each academic college, each Dean is responsible for engaging the college in developing an explicit, written process that will be used by the college and that includes development of the principles and strategic analyses that will shape and be explicitly tied to decision making.  (The principles and strategic analyses are supplementary to those already developed at the university level and incorporate a finer degree of focus on matters specifically relevant in the context of the college or vice presidential area.)

Vice Presidents and Deans have already also been reviewing and carefully considering the over 170 suggestions for efficiencies that have been  brought forward by faculty, staff, and students through electronic discussion forums, meetings, and other means; as appropriate, these will be incorporated in their strategic budget proposals. The various proposals from vice presidential areas, colleges, and other planning units will then be considered in an open budget hearing process as established in the planning and budgeting process.

While it is the Governor"s budget proposal that kicks our supplemental budget process into high gear, please remember that it is only a proposal.  The Legislature will develop its own budget.  And, again I must ask for your patience for the actual budget will not be known for many months.  That, though, provides the opportunity for us to further shape the outcome. 

Already, the university, our supporters in the area and around the state, faculty governance, professional staff and union leadership, and student governance leadership have been working together to coordinate approaches.  That unity will be important as we seek to protect the investment Washington has made, to this point, in its brighter futures.

Whatever the final budget may be, I remain confident that, if we meaningfully stick to our commitment to work openly and together, focusing strategically on the longer term, then we will come through as a university prepared to take significant steps forward.  And, as importantly, as a strong community.

Thank you for all you do for our community, state, and for our university.  And, do not hesitate to use our various online budget forums to make suggestions, raise questions, and check on rumors.

Bruce