WWU redefines itself in light of state cuts

This past spring's proposed state budget cuts to higher education threatened to be so draconian that at one point, Western Washington University considered eliminating two of its eight colleges.

Faced with the big cut, the school's faculty, administration and students began working together to reorder the school's academic programs, streamlining offerings at the state's third-largest university to make Western more efficient and focused.

"It's not just the money — it's the benefits of rethinking what the state needs from Western in the future," President Bruce Shepard said of the process of redefining Western.

In the end, cuts by the state Legislature were not as bad as expected. Western lost 30 percent of its public funding, or $35 million, over the 2011-13 budget period. But after tuition increases were factored in, the cut amounted to 2.2 percent, and no colleges had to be eliminated.

When students return this fall, they'll find more than 30 programs have been phased out. But they'll also find that some of the bottlenecks in class sign-ups — backups that made it difficult to complete a degree in four years — have been eliminated.

Western has added new sections of the most popular classes, and invested in new class sign-up software, Shepard said. It compressed the science curriculum, requiring fewer courses in some science majors.

And it requested, and will receive, more than $9 million in capital funding from the state for a large-scale classroom renovation, so space on campus can be used to its full capacity.

"What the less-dramatic cut allowed us to do is a more orderly academic arrangement of things," said Bill Lyne, an English professor and president of the faculty union, United Faculty of Washington State. "Overall, it worked pretty well."

But some of the losses will hurt.

"We're seeing some really good programs go by the wayside," said Associate Professor Larry Estrada, who taught in one of the eliminated programs, a master's degree program in student affairs administration.

The program helped prep graduates to become college administrators, and was so popular it often turned students away, Estrada said. But when several faculty members who taught in the program retired, it was phased out.

Perhaps the biggest impact of the state budget cuts will be on family pocketbooks: Undergraduate, in-state tuition is going up 16 percent for 2011-12, and will go up another 16 percent for 2012-13. Washington State University also increased tuition 16 percent; University of Washington tuition is going up 20 percent.

Tuition increases

Over the course of a student's time at Western, the tuition hikes are the equivalent of having to pay for a fifth year of college, said Iris Maute-Gibson, a senior and vice president for governmental affairs for Associated Students of Western Washington University (ASWWU).

Maute-Gibson has calculated that to pay for a year at Western in 1968, a student making minimum wage would have needed to work 17 hours a week, throughout the year. Today, a student would need to work 47 hours a week. "It's just impossible for a student to work and pay for college," she said.

She and Anna Ellermeier, president of ASWWU, worry about the stress placed on students who can't afford to pay for school. Making matters tougher: Students will find that services they deem essential are being cut, including counseling and library hours, they said.

Still, Shepard, who has been president of Western since 2008, has generally received high marks from students and faculty alike for the way he managed the cuts, and for including students and faculty in the process.

"The students were really active participants — they really helped us think a lot of this stuff through," said Catherine Riordan, provost and vice president of academic affairs.

The process was transparent, and there was a high level of trust among the participants, Maute-Gibson said.

"As college presidents go, he (Shepard) is pretty good," said Lyne, who admits to being skeptical of anything coming from the administration. "He walks his talk."

Shepard said the reinvention of Western will continue throughout the school year. One college that's likely to change is the 42-year-old Huxley College of the Environment. When it was started in 1969, Huxley was the only program on campus that taught environmental issues.

"Today we're a university of the environment," Shepard said, with sustainability and environmental issues reflected in almost every department. The school will study what Huxley should do in the years to come.

The same is true at Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies. The college has trimmed some faculty and revamped its offerings, "but the fundamental nature of Fairhaven as an innovative college will remain," said its dean, Roger Gilman. That includes giving students the chance to design their own interdisciplinary majors, giving narrative feedback about their work instead of letter grades, and offering seminar-style classes.

And computer science, a major that was briefly threatened with the ax, is also being revamped.

The university is aiming to increase its international and out-of-state enrollment. Out-of-state students pay about $18,000 a year in tuition and fees; Western reaps a profit of about $9,000 per out-of-state student.

Shepard said Western hopes to embark on a modest round of hiring tenure-track faculty this year, after hiring was frozen for three years.

Estrada said the faculty remains wary that if the economy doesn't turn around soon, the state could come back and ask the universities to cut deeper into their budgets.

"I don't know if anybody feels we're a winner," he said of this year's cuts. "Maybe there's a sense of relief that it wasn't a bigger loss."

Katherine Long: 206-464-2219 or klong@seattletimes.com