President Sabah Randhawa issues statement on Governor Inslee's budget

Governor Jay Inslee's operating and capital budget proposals for the upcoming 2019-21 biennium that were released on Thursday are very encouraging for Western and for public higher education as a whole. And, because public higher education is one of the most powerful means for creating social and economic opportunity, this is great news for the people of Washington. 

This is particularly true for those who are traditionally underserved and underrepresented in higher education.  Washington's State Need Grant has always been generous compared to many other states, but at Western it has always only covered about 60 percent of the students eligible to receive it. The governor's proposal to guarantee that all low-income students who are eligible will receive the grant is a huge step toward access and inclusion for all.  

For Western, the additional proposed $3.126 million to support academic program enhancements and student support services demonstrates a commitment not only to student access, but student success as well.  

The governor’s capital budget proposal includes $60 million in construction funding for Western to build a new Interdisciplinary Science Building, $6.5 million in design funding for an Electrical Engineering/Computer Science building, $3 million for classroom and lab upgrades, and additional proposed funding for Western to address minor works preservation and programmatic projects.  This funding for critical academic infrastructure on Western's campus would help address existing capacity constraints that are delaying students' time to graduation, particularly in the sciences, and enable the university to serve more students in the future. The budget proposal also includes funding for cost-of-living salary increases for WWU faculty and staff. 

You can find highlights of the governor’s budget proposals here. You can find Western’s operating and capital budget requests here and here. 

I look forward to working with state legislators during the upcoming 2019 session to ensure these important projects and initiatives are included in the final biennial budgets.