Senate Gives WSU Control Of Spokane Classes
The Senate voted Tuesday to let Washington State University control higher education in Spokane, following a bitter debate that left two senators red-faced.
Approved on a largely partisan vote, the bill would force embattled Eastern Washington University to seek approval from a citizens panel before continuing degree programs in Spokane.
Bill co-sponsor Jim West, R-Spokane, said the move was necessary to “save” Eastern, which is suffering “benign neglect” by administrators and board members.
Opponents, led by Sen. Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, an associate professor at Eastern, argued the bill was drastic micromanaging, and questioned West’s motives.
“There have been some doubts about the intent to save the school,” Brown said. “There’s a great deal of skepticism. Which university will be next? What happens to the next university that does something to offend a legislator?”
She later apologized for the remarks, but not before the two Republican sponsors lashed out at the people who manage Eastern.
West said the school ignored years of advice on ways to boost sagging enrollment. He claimed one board member spent two years of his term managing the school while a resident of the state of New York.
“That’s how Eastern has been run - benign neglect,” he said.
Co-sponsor Sen. Eugene Prince, R-Thornton, said some officials - including Eastern president Marshall Drummond - hadn’t followed through on their promises.
“I’ve had a commitment from the president that he was going to move back to Cheney for more than a year,” Prince said. “It hasn’t happened.”
Brown argued those were reasons to review the managers, not the way the institution is managed.
“For people who act as if Eastern is on life-support … it’s not,” she said.
On Tuesday, Drummond announced his resignation - four months early - to clear the way for new leadership.
The measure now moves to a House committee for review.
The bill eliminates a panel of college officials that currently oversees higher education in Spokane, and requires Eastern’s president to live near the school’s main campus in Cheney. It also calls on the school to write a mission statement “as a Cheney-based public baccalaureate institution.”
West and Prince both said they were frustrated because critics keep complaining they’re trying to gut the Eastern programs in Spokane.
“It’s hard to battle lies,” West said. But Brown said that while the proposal doesn’t say Eastern’s Spokane presence will cease, there’s nothing in the bill to guarantee it won’t.
, DataTimes