Contact: University Communications, (360) 650-3350
BELLINGHAM – Western Washington University officials today released the university’s proposed 2009-11 operating budget, which addresses steep reductions in state funding and is the result of a revamped, open and transparent budgeting process on campus.
The biennial budget plan, under development since last fall, responds to a 28.8 percent funding reduction in maintenance-level state support – or $44 million – that is only partially offset by one-time federal stimulus dollars and tuition increases.
During the next biennium, state support for Western – which in past decades had been as high as 70 percent per year – for the first time falls below 50 percent, or down to 45.5 percent for the biennium.
“This is a watershed moment in Western’s history – the first time the majority of our operating budget will come from students and tuition, rather than from state support,” said WWU President Bruce Shepard. “Western is changing from being a publicly supported university to a publicly assisted institution.”
Shepard outlines the details of Western’s 2009-11 operating budget in his Report to the Campus available for review. A few highlights:
- Protecting core academic commitments was established early in Western’s budget process as the foremost guiding principle. Cuts are not across the board. Reductions in academic programs are, on average, significantly below the average cuts in other areas (5 percent for academic programs vs. 7 to 10 percent elsewhere).
- Protecting people was another key budget principle. Most of the operating budget – or about 83 percent – goes to pay university employees. By looking first at vacant positions and by finding other opportunities at Western for those in positions that would be eliminated, the impact on current employees has been substantially reduced. Because of the budget cuts, there will be an estimated 164 fewer Western employees next year. The majority of those will come from unfilled vacant positions although an estimated 25 employees will be layed off and the contracts of approximately another 40 employees will not be renewed.
- The budget includes tuition increases of 14 percent – or an increase of $600 a year – for resident undergraduate students both years of the biennium. Increases in state and federal financial aid and expansion of federal education tax credits will offset that $600 tuition increase for most students and their families.
The university will be taking additional comment on the proposed operating budget, which is available for review at the University Planning & Budgeting web site. A public forum on the budget is scheduled for 2:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 14 in the Academic Instructional Center West, Room 204. Comments will be received until May 16 on the University’s web forum. Western’s Board of Trustees will consider the budget for final action on June 12.
A major change in formation of this biennial budget was development of a revamped, transparent budget process led by President Shepard. In August 2008, the university undertook a number of efforts to save funds through a variety of means: restrictions on contracts, travel, hiring, and purchasing; delays in implementation of previously funded initiatives; and careful examination of fund balances and past budgeting patterns.
Nine months ago, 16 planning units at the university wide level began bottom-up budget planning processes, which included a number of steps designed to provide greater transparency as the budget was being developed. Those proposals were publically presented and remain available on the web. On campus, university officials set anticipated state budget cuts for Western between a range of “low” and “high” levels of cuts and then differential “low” and “high” preliminary targets for each planning unit. Based on that planning and comments, Shepard, university deans and vice presidents then met to bring together the 16 proposals in order to draft a comprehensive, university-level proposal for the campus to consider.
Note: Western has both an operating budget – which keeps the university going on a day-to-day basis, paying salaries, utilities, supplies, etc. – and a capital budget, which is used for building projects such as renovation or maintenance of campus buildings. The money for these comes from two different funding sources: operating money comes from state operating appropriations and tuition; the capital budget is typically financed by state-issued bonds, a financing mechanism similar to a home mortgage. The state does not allow capital appropriations to be used for operating expenses.
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