WSU Pays For Missing Enrollment Targets

Enticing students to Pullman may be Washington State University’s most important short-term job.

Missing enrollment targets by more than 500 students this year hurt the university in Olympia during the legislative session that ended Sunday.

Not only did WSU sacrifice enrollment money to gain good will of lawmakers in the mood to boost student slots, but legislators this year also reinstated penalties for institutions that don’t meet their fall enrollment projections. Going unfunded were WSU requests for money to prepare for an expected surge of students through computer updates and building renovations.

Larry Ganders, WSU’s chief legislative lobbyist, said missing enrollment targets by 550 students on the Pullman campus haunted him at the Capitol.

The reimposition of 1980s-vintage monetary penalties for institutions that don’t hit enrollment targets, he said, was a direct response to WSU, Eastern Washington University and branch campuses of other universities coming up short this year.

Geoff Gamble, WSU’s interim provost, said the university will have to look for ways to trim spending not only because of a mandated $3 million budget-cutting exercise but also because of “some uncertainty about the enrollment situation for fall.”