At least 191 additional students will have the opportunity to attend WSU campuses next year under a House-Senate supplemental operating budget that passed the Legislature on the final day of the 2004 session, March 11.
Like most universities in the state, Washington State University has been over-enrolled and needs to cut back on the size of its entering freshman class in order to have the funding to provide a college education to existing students. That reduction is eased by the supplemental budget’s $1 million provision to provide funding for an additional 191 students at $5,453 per FTE (full-time equivalent).
The final compromise is less than the governor’s recommendation for 288 students and the House recommendation of 298 students. However, the Senate had recommended no new dedicated enrollment for WSU and the final budget compromise uses the House’s funding formula, which is higher than the $4,906 per student proposed by the governor.
In addition to these general enrollment increases earmarked for WSU, the university also will have the opportunity to compete with other public and private institutions for $3.6 million in additional high-demand enrollments. The Legislature assumes that 324 student FTEs will be created at an average cost of $11,000 per student, enough money to cover some higher-cost programs, such as computer science or nursing, whose graduate are in high demand.
There was a lot of legislative discussion over the outbreak of mad cow disease in the state, but the final budget provides no additional funding to expand programs at WSU. The House had provided $270,000 for the research, but the Senate did not recommend any funding.
However, the House language to provide $330,000 to the state Department of Agriculture to contract with WSU for research and development of asparagus harvesting and automation technology was provided.
A House-Senate construction budget compromise included $31.6 million for the Spokane Academic Center and $3.4 million for the Pullman Wastewater Reclamation Project. WSUNet, the university computer network, which was funded in the Senate version of the construction budget, was not funded in the House-Senate agreement.
