Presidents ask Legislature to spare higher ed

The presidents of Washington's public universities asked the Legislature on Tuesday to not trim their operating budgets despite stark cuts proposed for many other state programs and services.

Their prognosis if the cuts stand: fewer students allowed to enroll in classes packed with more people, taught by fewer instructors.

They say a recession is the wrong time to reduce higher education budgets because laid-off workers are returning to college at a much higher rate.

"There is no way for us to get out of this fiscal crisis absent reducing personnel in the form of faculty and staff," Washington State University President Elson Floyd told a legislative committee Tuesday.

Gov. Chris Gregoire's proposed state budget for 2009-11 calls for a cut of 12 percent to 13 percent for every four-year university. She also included a 7 percent tuition increase in her budget.

But state universities are bracing for worse.

Declining tax revenues could prompt the Legislature to cut more from its already pared-back budget. A new economic forecast will be released on Thursday with updated state fiscal numbers.

"We're all hoping for 12 (percent), but we're counting on 18," Floyd said.

The University of Washington estimates it will have to cut between 600 and 800 faculty and staff positions. Over-enrollment, plus budget cuts the governor ordered last year, forced the UW to decide not to enroll any new students for spring quarter.

Now the university expects to enroll between 850 and 2,270 fewer students in the next biennium. And those who are accepted can now expect their degree to take a few additional quarters of schooling to complete, the school says.

"We will see some significant staff cuts and layoffs probably within the next three weeks," UW President Mark Emmert said during a committee hearing.

Emmert - who is one of the highest-paid public college presidents, making about $905,000 a year - told the UW Board of Regents he would forgo a pay raise last November.

On Tuesday he didn't directly address a question about possible further salary reductions, although he said the UW wasn't taking "anything off the table."

Floyd took a $100,000 salary cut last November in response to budget problems.

Both the Legislature and higher education officials have expressed concerns about what effect the state's expected budget deficit of nearly $6 billion will have on university enrollment during the next two years.

"I think they're being realists, as we are being realists about this particular chapter," said Les Purce, president of The Evergreen State College. "My sense is they are concerned and interested in working with us."

The state budget includes money for a certain number of enrollment openings at every state university. The universities get the rest of their money from tuition and private donations.

Most of the time, Washington's four-year universities enroll more students than the state budget supports, in part because it's difficult to estimate how many students accepted to a school will end up enrolling.

While state university presidents lobbied at the Capitol on Tuesday, Democratic members of the Legislature held a press conference to outline their vision for higher education.

Acknowledging the state's budget woes, the lawmakers said higher education officials are going to have to do more with less. Their vision for the future includes offering more online courses and prioritizing education financing for tech-sector and science degree programs.

"One of the things we have talked about is wanting to give the universities and the colleges flexibility, but as well giving parameters about how we would like to see money invested," said House Higher Education Committee Chairwoman Rep. Deb Wallace, D-Vancouver.

Even if scarce state funding is slated for high-tech degree programs, Emmert said the UW still values nonscientific coursework.

"We actually want our engineers to write well and speak well," Emmert said. "They may not be able to recite a sonnet, but we want them to know what a sonnet is."