Locke Puts Price On WSU Spokane Budget Plan Sets Higher Subsidies Than On Other Campuses

Taxpayers may pay more to subsidize new students at Washington State University’s Spokane branch campus than at any other university in the state, government documents show.

Under a two-year budget formula devised by Gov. Gary Locke, Washington residents would pay $17,100 to $21,000 to educate each new graduate student at WSU’s downtown branch campus. From $7,200 to $9,300 would be spent on each junior and senior student.

That compares with a $14,400 price tag that Locke proposed to support new graduate students at four other WSU and University of Washington branches in Vancouver, the Tri-Cities, Tacoma and Bothell. The state would pay $7,400 for new undergraduates.

The plan must be approved by the Legislature, which will open its 1999 session on Monday. The proposal would not directly affect student tuition, although every dollar subsidized by taxpayers is one less that students must pay.

Locke’s plan is the first step toward developing the state’s branch campuses in preparation for an additional 100,000 students that may seek a college education by 2020.

William Gray, dean of WSU Spokane, said Monday that the campus needs more money per student because of its high percentage of expensive health science programs.

“It’s not as far off the map as you might think,” Gray said. “A significant portion of our enrollments are in highly specialized fields where the cost of instruction is considerably higher than in less technical fields.”

Locke’s proposal calls for the state to contribute $3.1 million to WSU Spokane to add 159 students in the next two years and cover a one-time expense of $870,000 to start up new academic programs. Locke also supports construction of a $36 million health sciences building for WSU and others at the Riverpoint Higher Education Park.

But Stephen Jordan, president of Eastern Washington University, wonders if taxpayers will be willing to pay $17,000 or more to educate each graduate student in the next 20 years.

Colorado, Texas, Florida and other states have found that upper-division branch campuses are too costly, Jordan said. The campuses eventually were converted to four-year schools to serve large numbers of freshmen and sophomores.

“If we’re talking about the growth of 100,000 students going to branch campuses, how can we afford it?” asked Jordan, who formerly directed higher education for the state of Kansas. “I don’t think we can sustain that forever.”

Wolfgang Opitz, senior budget analyst for the governor’s Office of Financial Management, said the budget plan encourages student growth at the branch campuses, where there is the greatest capacity.

Taxpayers already underwrite much of the cost of instruction, administration, library services, student services and maintenance at public universities and colleges. Student tuition, grants and private donations cover the rest.

About 417 full-time equivalent students were enrolled at WSU Spokane in the fall. Nearly 60 percent of instruction was in health administration, speech and hearing science, human nutrition and pharmacy.

WSU has proposed programs in geriatrics, kinesiology and other health science fields. It also is advertising future programs in creative writing, hotel and restaurant administration, manufacturing engineering, real estate and risk management and insurance.

Locke’s proposal comes on the heels of a controversial decision last year to give WSU management control of the 48-acre Riverpoint campus east of downtown. EWU is the biggest tenant at Riverpoint, but WSU leases classroom and office space in the Metropolitan Financial Center on First Avenue that it wants to consolidate at Riverpoint.

The Legislature gave WSU greater power to offer upper-division and graduate classes in Spokane, which officials hope will appeal to more students while meeting demand among employers for workers with advanced skills.