The Bellingham Herald

• Miller renovation now in limbo
  Depending on what ends up in the state's capital projects budget, Western Washington University's long-awaited renovation of Miller Hall might not happen any time soon. The state Senate's proposed 2009-11 capital budget includes about $57.5 million to renovate Miller Hall, one of the older buildings on campus and Western's main capital budget request this biennium. But there's no money for Miller Hall in the House's proposed budget.
  "We're urging the House to reconsider," said Renee Roberts, capital budget director for WWU. "It's been a longstanding need."
  

  ---

• WWU to build first dorm in nearly 40 years
  A major dormitory addition at Western Washington University should begin construction in about three months, providing jobs at a time of rising local unemployment.
  Construction of the five-story, 100-bed addition to Buchanan Towers, at Bill McDonald Parkway and South Campus Drive, is estimated to cost $11.6 million.
  The addition on the east side of the current building will be the first new dorm on campus in about 40 years. A one-story café addition on the south side of the building will provide a new entrance and gathering place.
  

  ---

• Huxley students to talk about "green" airport project
  When you think of airports, green is probably the last thing that comes to mind.
  But the students in Western Washington University's Huxley College of the Environment have spent the last year trying to change that. You can learn about the college's work with Sea-Tac International Airport at a talk 3 p.m. Friday, April 10 in room 125 of Western's Communications Facility.
  

  ---

• 4Q retail numbers saw biggest drop in county since 1993
  Given how much the U.S. economy slowed down between October and December 2008, the numbers aren't a big surprise, said Hart Hodges, director of the Center for Economic and Business Research at Western Washington University.

The Columbian

• Increasing tuition a distressing but necessary strategy
  History and hope tell us that every recession is temporary. That's why two recommendations by Gov. Chris Gregoire for increasing education funding — though painful — are reasonable and should be adopted by the Legislature. But because this recession is temporary, the methods of increasing revenue should be stopgap and abandoned once the economy is improved.
  The first of Gregoire's two proposals is to lift the current cap for tuition increases from 7 percent annually to 14 percent annually for the next two years.

The Wenatchee World

• Nothing left but raising tuition
  After spending all the federal stimulus dole and wringing out its repertoire of budgetary flim-flam, the state Legislature still has to cut about $4 billion from what it would have liked to spend over the next two years. It is a dilemma — even government can’t go for long spending money it doesn’t have, no matter what they say. So, one of the proposals is to get nearly 20 percent of that sum through budget cuts at state universities and colleges.
  "Devastating" is probably the most overused word in Olympia this year, but in this case, with that level of cuts, it would fit. Cuts of 20 or 30 percent in university and college budgets would unmake the institutions. Faculty would leave in droves, programs disappear, classes would be eliminated or doubled in size. Estimates are 10,000 Washington students who otherwise are qualified for higher education would be turned away. There would be no place to put them and no one to teach them. That is 10,000 lives forever altered. Those lucky enough to get in would find an institution that is far less than they expected, with opportunities diminished and the chance of obtaining a degree in the four years they expected now slight.