Committee Approves WSU Bill

A bill to give Washington State University control of higher education in Spokane passed its first hurdle Thursday without fanfare.

The Senate Higher Education Committee passed the bill, sponsored by Sens. Jim West, R-Spokane, and Eugene Prince, R-Thornton, after making a minor technical clarification.

The committee also passed a bill making the Spokane Intercollegiate Research and Technology Institute its own quasi state agency. That bill was amended to reflect that people who now work at SIRTI as employees of the Joint Center for Higher Education would become employees of SIRTI.

Both bills will make stops before the Rules Committee before hitting the Senate floor. The bills also may be heard by the Senate Ways and Means Committee, chaired by West, if they are deemed to have any potential cost to taxpayers.

The WSU bill was designed as a compromise by West and Prince, who were at odds over West’s suggestion that Eastern Washington University merge with WSU.

Some EWU supporters are angry because the bill requires EWU to get approval from a citizens panel before continuing to offer classes outside Cheney. They have argued that is merely the first step in kicking EWU out of Spokane.

But West and Prince say EWU supporters misunderstand their intentions.

“I think there is a great deal of fearmongering going on,” West said Thursday. “I don’t know how to allay their fears because many of them aren’t based on fact.”

, DataTimes