Not So Fast, Ewu Tells Legislators Delay Higher Ed Changes Until 1999, Board Asks

Fri., Feb. 20, 1998

Grayden Jones Staff writer

Eastern Washington University is calling on lawmakers to wait until 1999 before making permanent changes to higher education in Spokane.

Eastern’s board of trustees voted unanimously Wednesday to fight a state Senate bill the university fears would push the school back to Cheney.

The action came a day after Eastern President Marshall Drummond resigned and the Senate passed a bill giving Washington State University control over upper-division and graduate programs in Spokane.

“There should always be good dialogue before surgery especially when you’re discussing amputation,” said trustee Mark Mays, a Spokane psychologist.

Senate Bill 6717 has moved to the House for debate next week. Sens. Jim West, R-Spokane, and Eugene Prince, R-Thornton, co-sponsored the bill.

The bill was amended this week to include preliminary recommendations from the Higher Education Coordinating Board, a nine-member citizens panel that sets higher education policy. The bill passed 27-21, a closer margin than WSU had expected.

The bill would eliminate the Joint Center for Higher Education, which manages the Riverpoint Higher Education Park, and give control of nearly all of the 48-acre park to WSU. The lone exception is the Spokane Intercollegiate Research & Technology Institute, which would become an independent state agency.

The bill orders an assessment of Spokane’s economy and higher education needs. It sets a Sept. 1 deadline for WSU to develop a plan to coordinate programs in Spokane and Eastern to develop a mission statement that identifies programs that should remain in Spokane.

The bill ensures that students enrolled in Eastern programs would pay the university’s lower tuition rates.

Larry Ganders, Olympia lobbyist for WSU, said Eastern is overreacting. The bill gives the HEC Board, not WSU, power to approve or reject programs in Spokane, he said.

“Read the bill,” he said. “There’s no language in there that tells EWU it has to pack up and move out of Spokane.’

Ganders said lawmakers should pass SB 6717 this session to clear the public confusion brought by the cumbersome Joint Center management and give WSU freedom to pitch new programs for Spokane to the HEC Board.

“We’re talking about delivering more programs, not taking programs out of Spokane,” Ganders said. “I don’t see any advantage to students to wait on an issue like that.”

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