On Thursday the Higher Education Coordinating Board held their monthly meeting in Olympia. 

The Board received an update from the State Economist on Washington’s economic and revenue forecast and  the impact to higher education.

The majority of the meeting was focused on current efforts to update the Strategic Master Plan for  higher education in Washington. The HECB is required to update its Strategic Master Plan four years after its development in 2008.

A handful of business, community and institutional representatives shared their perspectives with a focus on three key questions:

• What are the looming policy issues for higher education over the next three to five years?
• What should compromise the “public agenda” for higher education in Washington?
• Where should the state focus our scarce resources to make progress toward increasing education attainment?

The representatives included David Fisher (Washington Roundtable), George Scarola (League of Education Voters), David Zeeck (The News Tribune), Jim Fridley (UW Professor/Council of Faculty Representatives), Mike Bogatay (Washington Student Association), Lloyd Butler (Pacific Northwest University), and faculty and students from the community and technical colleges.