Washington Senate Honors Service of Retiring President

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This morning the Washington Senate opened by recognizing the long career and dedication to higher education of Dr. Rudolpho Arevalo.

Earlier this month Dr. Arevalo announced that he would retire this academic year as the President of Eastern Washington University (EWU).

Several members of the Senate rose to speak about the contributions and service Dr. Arevalo has provided to Washingtonians during his tenure at EWU. The resolution passed by the Senate recognized Arevalo’s contributions to the community and state with a special emphasis on his tireless work around the creation of opportunities and the advocacy for access to higher education for students from across the state.

On a more personal note, many of the Senators spoke to the integrity, humility, and kindness that is Dr. Arevalo. Recognized as a true gentleman, Dr. Arevalo’s footprint on EWU and higher education in Washington will continue well after he leaves.

House Higher Education Takes Time to Learn More about Mental Health, Campus Safety and Student Debt

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This morning the House Higher Education opened the day with a busy work session. The Committee heard from three panels with regard to three major, topical issues impacting the climate on higher education campuses – campus safety, student debt and mental health.

In a focused presentation before the Committee, Elizabeth McHugh, Director of Counseling and Health Services addressed national trends and strategies,  with regard to mental health and student services on campus.  Evergreen was joined by colleagues from Western Washington University and the community and technical colleges.

The Committee also heard from a panel of campus safety officers from Washington State University, Central Washington University, and Eastern Washington University with regard to campus safety trends and strategies on higher education campuses.

Finally the Committee heard from students from the University of Washington with regard to student-driven work on campus to analyze student debt at the University.

Senate Ways & Means Advances Legislation

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This afternoon the Senate Ways & Means Committee advanced several bills to the Senate floor. Today marked the deadline for all bills before the appropriation committees to be advanced to either the Senate or House floor.

The Committee advanced three higher education related bill.

  • SB 6042 would establish an incentive funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions. A substitute was passed out of committee that made several changes to the bill including clarifications with regard to funding and metrics as well as repeal of former performance related reporting requirements.
  • SB 6362  would implement greater efficiencies for the public, baccalaureate institutions. The legislation would make changes to business practices resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions. A substitute was passed out of committee that removed language to allow the pre-design threshold to increase from $5 million to $10 million.
  • SB 6482 would add the branch campuses to the display of campus information on the statewide public four-year dashboard.

Appropriation Committee Hears Higher Education Legislation

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This afternoon the Senate Ways & Means Committee held a series of public hearings in a marathon session. The Senate and House face another major deadline tomorrow when all bills before the appropriation committees must have moved to their respective floors for further consideration.

Of the forty-five bills scheduled for a public hearing before Senate Ways & Means the Committee heard three higher education related bills.

The Committee held a public hearing on legislation to implement greater efficiencies for the public, baccalaureate institutions (SB 6362). The legislation would make changes to business practices resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions. Among the changes proposed is permissive authority to prorate paychecks for faculty on nine-month appointments, to change payroll frequency from semi-monthly to biweekly and changes to existing reporting requirements. The University of Washington and Central Washington University testified on behalf of the public, baccalaureate institutions in favor of the bill.

The Committee also heard about legislation to establish an incentive funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (SB 6042). The Council of Presidents (COP) testified on this bill earlier in the session in the Senate Higher Education Committee citing support for performance funding and general support for the bill with the caveat that additional conversations with the institution was necessary to identify further details with regard to distribution of funds and metrics. COP echoed its earlier testimony before the Senate Ways & Means Committee.

Finally the Committee held a public hearing on legislation to require the display of branch campus information on the statewide public four-year dashboard (SB 6482).

Policy Committees Meet Deadline Moves Bills to Next Step

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This afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee met and took action on several bills. This marks the last committee session prior to the policy cut-off on Friday in the Senate.

The Committee advanced a number of gubernatorial appointments to public, higher education four- and two-year institutions.

In addition the Committee focused considerable amount of time on advancing legislation either to Senate Ways & Means or the Senate floor for further consideration. Among the legislation advanced included requiring the display of branch campus information on the statewide public four-year dashboard (SB 6482) and creating a work group to make recommendations for the continued viability of the college bound scholarship program (SB 6436).

The Committee amended and advanced legislation that would create an eight-member legislative task force to provide recommendations to the Governor and Legislature on establishing a cap  for undergraduate resident tuition by December 1, 2014. (SB 6043). The original bill would have established a cap on undergraduate, resident tuition not to exceed 10% of the most current average annual wage reported by the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD). The average annual wage reported by ESD in 2012 was $51,595.

In addition the Committee advanced legislation to implement greater efficiencies for the public, baccalaureate institutions (SB 6362). The legislation would make changes to business practices resulting in greater efficiency and effectiveness for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions. Among the changes proposed is permissive authority to prorate paychecks for faculty on nine-month appointments, to change payroll frequency from semi-monthly to biweekly and changes to existing reporting requirements.

The focus will now turn to the appropriation committees through early next week followed by several days of floor session.

Senate Higher Education Committee Moves Evergreen Trustees to Floor

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On Tuesday afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee took action on several gubernatorial appointments to various higher education related boards.

Among those appointments advanced by the Committee was the appointments of Fred Goldberg and Keith Kessler trustees to The Evergreen State College Board of Trustees.

Fred Goldberg is a philanthropist, Army veteran, banker and entrepreneur. He helped found Saltchuk Resources, a global logistics company, currently the largest private company in Washington State.  Recently retired from active management of the company, Fred continues to serve on the Saltchuk board.  As a banker, Fred saw the evolution of the Thurston County State Bank into Puget Sound National Bank and then into Key Bank, serving in various leadership roles throughout the decades.  He currently serves on the board of Columbia Bank.

Fred has deep roots in Olympia, where he operated his family’s third-generation furniture business, volunteered at the Washington State Capital Museum and helped the Panorama City retirement community regain financial stability in the 1990s.

Keith Kessler is a plaintiff’s personal injury attorney with the Hoquiam and Seattle Law Firm of Stritmatter Kessler Whelan Coluccio, representing brain- and spinal cord-injury survivors.  He focuses his practice largely on highway and product safety.  His recent articles have addressed the need for open government.

Keith is a Fellow with the American College of Trial Lawyers, having been selected from among the top 1% of trial attorneys in the United States and Canada. He has served as President of the Washington State Trial Lawyers Association, President of the invitation-only Damage Attorneys Round Table, and President of the American Board of Trial Advocates, Washington Chapter.  He is a member of the Washington Supreme Court’s Pattern Jury Instructions Committee.

Both appointments now await confirmation by the Senate.

Higher Education Policy Committees Move Legislation as Deadline Nears

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This week marks the first major deadline of the 2014 supplemental session.  The policy committees in the House and Senate, including the House and Senate Higher Education Committees, must move bills forward to either the floor or the appropriations committee to keep them “alive” this session by the close of business on Wednesday. The same is true in the Senate with the deadline this Friday.

It is worth noting that a bill may not move forward by this deadline but may still be active because it is “Necessary to Implement the Budget” or may reappear as part of the budget.

The House Higher Education Committee held a series of public hearings on Tuesday morning. Among the bills taken up by the Committee included an audit of the state universities (HB 2038) and the creation of an Institute for Teaching Excellence (HB 2661).

Evergreen testified with concerns about proposed legislation that would design and implement a program that provides information to high achieving, low-income high school students with the intention of increasing the number of applications from this group four-year institutions of higher education in Washington (HB 2694).  As drafted Evergreen expressed concerns about the inclusion of the term “selective” as it relates to identifying higher education institutions, the stated assumption in the bill that national aptitude tests are predictors of college success, and the need to ensure a broad range of options to identify high achieving students.  Western Washington University also expressed concerns about the bill.

The Committee also moved several bills through to the next step. Among the bills the Committee to action was legislation to concerning mentoring and service learning opportunities in Washington (HB 2400), efficiency legislation for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (HB 2613), establishing statewide educational attainment goals (HB 2626) and the creation of the Pay It Forward program (HB 2720).

In the afternoon the Senate Higher Education Committee held several public hearings on proposed legislation. Among the bills that the Committee focused its attention on was efforts to expand the display of metric information for the public baccalaureate institutions to include the branch campuses (SB 6482) and to provide a tuition and fee exemption to the children and surviving spouses of certain highway workers (SB 6370).

The Council of Presidents testified against Senate Bill 6043 which would cap tuition for undergraduate residents students so as not to exceed 10% of the most current average annual wage reported by the Washington Employment Security Department (ESD). The average annual wage reported by ESD in 2012 was $51,595.

The Committee also moved several gubernatorial appointments to higher education related boards forward to the Senate Floor for confirmation.

Obama Signs Appropriations Legislation.

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Earlier this year President Obama signed into law the omnibus appropriations bills for FY14.  The bill increased funding for the U.S. Department of Education by $1.6 billion over FY13.

While the increase did not fully restore the reductions in discretionary funding from sequestration, the budget does provide much needed investments for the entire education continuum.

Specific to higher education the act provides $75 million for the First in the World initiative aimed at college access and affordability.

The President will release a summary of his FY 2015 budget proposal on March 4.

Washington Senate Passes DREAM Act

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This afternoon the Washington Senate passed the Real Hope Act (SB 6523) with a vote of 35-10.

The bill would allow students to be eligible for the State Need Grant program if they met the following criteria:

  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent;
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma or its equivalent and until being admitted to a public institution of higher education; and
  • Provided to the institution an affidavit indicating that the individual will file an application to become a permanent resident at the earliest opportunity the individual is eligible to do so and a willingness to engage in other activities necessary to acquire citizenship.

Or

  • Granted Deferred Action for Childhood Arrival (DACA) Status;
  • Completed the full senior year of high school and obtained a diploma at a Washington public or private high school, or received the equivalent of a diploma;
  • Lived in Washington for at least three years immediately prior to receiving the diploma or its equivalent; and
  • Continuously lived in the state after receiving the diploma orits equivalent and until
    being admitted to a public institution of higher education.

The bill now goes to the House for consideration.

House Higher Education Committee Closes Week with Public Hearings

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Bright and early this morning the House Higher Education Committee held public hearings on a range of bills that focus on funding for higher education, affordability and access.

The Committee kicked off the morning with a hearing on legislation that would adopt the goals put forward by the Washington Student Achievement Council (WASAC) (HB 2626) and heard legislation to implement a performance funding framework for Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions (HB 2653).

Among the bills taken up by the Committee this morning was legislation that would move Washington forward to implement a voluntary Pay-It-Forward model for students at five high schools selected by WASAC (HB 2720). Evergreen, Washington State University (WSU), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) expressed concerns about the proposal with regard to the impact on student debt and access. Evergreen and WSU encouraged legislators to focus on fully funding the existing financial aid programs and investing in the institutions to offset increases in tuition. The Economic Opportunity Institute and a citizen testified in support.

The Committee closed the meeting with the passage of three bills. House Bill 2429 would create the Washington Advance Higher Education Loan Pilot Program, House Bill 2396 would require WASAC to conduct an analysis of Washington’s Running Start Program, and House Bill 2486 would eliminate the current statute that prohibits the Department of Corrections from paying for post-secondary education and would authorize the DOC to implement post-secondary education programs within existing funds.