WSU Asks State For Boost University Officials Seek $25 Million For Programs

Washington State University is turning up the pressure for state money with a $25 million request for capital and operating expenses in 1996.

School officials Tuesday said they are campaigning for the supplemental budget in light of demographic figures showing a large increase in college-age state residents over the next 15 years.

“There’s basically a tidal wave of students coming toward higher education,” said Greg Royer, WSU’s executive director of budget and planning.

In a letter sent to Gov. Mike Lowry last week, WSU President Sam Smith said the budget request seeks to fund the equivalent of 1,200 full-time students through a technology initiative known as “Virtual WSU.” The initiative involves computer-based technologies in the classroom as well as an off-campus degree program and “learning centers” at about two-dozen locations around the state.

The 1,200 students would be on top of nearly 20,000 enrolled on WSU’s four campuses this fall. By 2010, officials expect enrollment on the four campuses to top the equivalent of 32,000 full-time students.

The technology request alone would draw $7.2 million from the general fund, making it the largest of nearly $10 million in operating requests.

If approved, the $10 million would constitute a 3.2 percent increase in state money for WSU. That’s close to the 4.3 percent increase in the current biennial budget, but it comes as a healthy economy and a tight-fisted Legislature have created a sizeable state surplus.

Moreover, officials are saying the money is needed to cover an emergency, a key element of supplemental budget increases.

“We’re taking what we think is an aggressive, bold move for something that we think is a crisis for this state,” Royer said.

Other operating budget requests include $1.5 million for wine and pesticide research programs mandated by the 1995 Legislature but unfunded in what school officials said was a legislative oversight.

Another $1.2 million would give a 5 percent pay increase for librarians, counselors and professionals. Excluded from increases that faculty members already received, counselors and professionals are paid 11.5 percent less than their peers, according to a WSU-commissioned study. WSU librarians are paid nearly 20 percent less than those at other libraries in the region.

The heart of the capital request is a $7 million expansion of the Washington Higher Education Telecommunication System, or WHETS. WSU wants to expand the microwave-based interactive television system into the Interstate 5 corridor and from Ellensburg to Spokane, decrease “congestion” on the system and add WHETS-receiving classrooms.

WSU also is seeking $2.5 million for a multimedia-oriented classroom and $3 million for improvements to the Holland library sprinkler system, the White Hall electrical system and a traffic signal for Stadium Way near Pullman Memorial Hospital.

, DataTimes