Institutional budgets align with Strategic Master Plan priorities

Increased enrollment support, especially for high-demand degree programs, and funding for faculty and staff compensation were priorities for Washington’s public two- and four-year institutions in budget requests presented at the July 21-22 meeting of the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board in Seattle.

Mark Emmert, president of the University of Washington, and Elson Floyd, president of Washington State University, making a dual presentation, described the state’s research universities as ‘workhorses in the production of an educated citizenry.”

“The UW and WSU produce the vast majority of undergraduate and graduate degrees in the state. As research universities, we are collaborating on joint projects such as mapping the genome of an apple, global health and global animal health. And we are entrepreneurial universities, as well, with more than $1 billion in externally funded research,” Emmert said.

Floyd and Emmert requested enrollment increases that would yield an additional 2,000 degrees in high-demand fields annually by 2018, a top priority of the Strategic Master Plan for Higher Education. Budget requests for the WSU and UW branch campuses were included in their presentations.

Also delivering budget presentations were Charlie Earl, executive director of the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC); Jerilyn McIntyre, president of Central Washington University; Mary Voves, vice president, Business and Finance, Eastern Washington University; Thomas L. Purce, president, The Evergreen State College; and Karen Morse, president, Western Washington University. 

Funding for enhanced technology development, both to deliver more online courses and to improve core computing infrastructure was high on the priority list of most institutions, as well as environmental and health related capital projects.

The community and technical colleges are requesting 1,700 new high-demand FTEs for the biennium as well as 800 FTE for general enrollment increases. Earl said these increases were needed to serve the state’s need for a more skilled and educated workforce and to meet the degree and enrollment goals of the Strategic Master Plan.

“We are fully invested in the Strategic Master Plan goal to educate more students to higher levels. All who enter postsecondary education need to get further up the education ladder,” Earl said. Higher education investments need to be viewed as investments that contribute directly to the state’s economy, he added.

The SBCTC budget gives priorities to high-demand areas such as I-BEST (combining work training and language training), apprenticeships, workforce development, Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, and applied baccalaureate degrees. It also proposes an additional 800 new FTEs in general enrollment and funds to close the gap in Running Start funding.

Summaries of institutional budget proposals.  Read more.