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UW Students Spar with Administration Over Tuition

Politics, This Washington   February 3, 2010 at 8:40 am Teodora Popescu

The University of Washington’s student administration held a budget cuts town hall last night for students and administration officials. Things got heated when one student took his alloted 30 seconds for questions to simply call the administration “racist,” suggesting the simultaneous tuition increases and financial aid cuts were targeting minorities.

University President Mark Emmert responded by reminding students he had started the Husky Pride Fund, which caters to low-income students from any background.

UW President Mark Emmert

The two groups butted heads over a bill sponsored by Seattle-area Sen. Ken Jacobsen (D-46) and another sponsored by Gig Harbor Sen. Derek Kilmer (D-26) that would give the UW tuition setting authority.

Student Director of the Office of Government Relations Jono Hanks described the need to keep tuition setting authority at the state level to ensure that  increases are fair. Emmert interrupted Hanks’ speech saying: “I couldn’t disagree more.”


  • ratcityreprobate

    “Chronicle of Higher Education report, which includes all sources of reimbursement and not just state salary, places UW President Mark Emmert as the second-highest-paid public college president in the nation, at $905,000.” PI 1-31-10

  • ratcityreprobate

    “Chronicle of Higher Education report, which includes all sources of reimbursement and not just state salary, places UW President Mark Emmert as the second-highest-paid public college president in the nation, at $905,000.” PI 1-31-10

  • Jeremy Hillary Boob, Phd

    Vision:

    Move the UW Seattle campus to Tri-Cities. Build a brand new “4th City”…called Education City. Use cheap land to make it expansive…Kennewick/Pasco/Richland provide reasonable priced housing.

    Turn current campus into “City On A Hill — A Place for Luxury Townhomes”. Take all old gothic buildings and make them 1/2/3/ bedroom condoes. Red Square allows retail space. Advertise and total enclosed, safe yet accessible living community.

  • Jeremy Hillary Boob, Phd

    Vision:

    Move the UW Seattle campus to Tri-Cities. Build a brand new “4th City”…called Education City. Use cheap land to make it expansive…Kennewick/Pasco/Richland provide reasonable priced housing.

    Turn current campus into “City On A Hill — A Place for Luxury Townhomes”. Take all old gothic buildings and make them 1/2/3/ bedroom condoes. Red Square allows retail space. Advertise and total enclosed, safe yet accessible living community.

  • Michael G

    I was at the town hall yesterday. I would have liked to asked whether the school’s administration learned any lessons that will help them weather future downturns, perhaps something along the lines of accomodating better to non-traditional students or overcommitment to capital projects. Instead of legitimate questions about the university’s leadership, we got the ridiculous attack mentioned in your write-up, some bits of demagoguery over President Emmert’s salary, and spurious claims about the UW’s operating budget.

    As for the panelists, they blamed the problem entirely on the legislature. They accused legislators of not understanding the importance of higher education for the well-being of the state. Emmert emphasized that this trend has been in the works for 20 years, as the proportion of the UW’s operating budget that comes from Olympia has decreased, passing below 50% just recently. This represents a shift of mentality: higher education is increasingly thought of as a private good instead of a public good. Emmert also criticized the trend toward community colleges.

  • Michael G

    I was at the town hall yesterday. I would have liked to asked whether the school’s administration learned any lessons that will help them weather future downturns, perhaps something along the lines of accomodating better to non-traditional students or overcommitment to capital projects. Instead of legitimate questions about the university’s leadership, we got the ridiculous attack mentioned in your write-up, some bits of demagoguery over President Emmert’s salary, and spurious claims about the UW’s operating budget.

    As for the panelists, they blamed the problem entirely on the legislature. They accused legislators of not understanding the importance of higher education for the well-being of the state. Emmert emphasized that this trend has been in the works for 20 years, as the proportion of the UW’s operating budget that comes from Olympia has decreased, passing below 50% just recently. This represents a shift of mentality: higher education is increasingly thought of as a private good instead of a public good. Emmert also criticized the trend toward community colleges.

  • ratcityreprobate

    @Michael G. Thanks for the summary.

  • Mathew “RennDawg” Renner

    The nerve. Requiering people who want higher education to actually pay for it. I demand the right to be educated snd to have someone else pay fot it.

  • Mathew “RennDawg” Renner

    The nerve. Requiering people who want higher education to actually pay for it. I demand the right to be educated snd to have someone else pay fot it.

  • Roxana

    All parents, grand parents had payed for this higher education. This payment is in every sale tax, property tax, is part of everything living people are building, spending, being a consumer. There were rich people building and donating schools, universities, museums, arts centers and helping universities. Some are still in front of this but where are the too many of those people now?

  • Roxana

    All parents, grand parents had payed for this higher education. This payment is in every sale tax, property tax, is part of everything living people are building, spending, being a consumer. There were rich people building and donating schools, universities, museums, arts centers and helping universities. Some are still in front of this but where are the too many of those people now?

  • Gomez

    “University President Mark Emmert responded by reminding students he had started the Husky Pride Fund, which caters to low-income students from any background.”

    How disconnected can a rich white man get? “I’m not racist… I started a token handout campaign for poor people. See?”

    Uh no, you blue-blood. We don’t.

  • Gomez

    “University President Mark Emmert responded by reminding students he had started the Husky Pride Fund, which caters to low-income students from any background.”

    How disconnected can a rich white man get? “I’m not racist… I started a token handout campaign for poor people. See?”

    Uh no, you blue-blood. We don’t.

  • Trevor

    Has the cost of providing education per capita gone up? Seems to me the UW is quick to point out that per capita state support has gone down, but doesn’t mention whether the cost of providing an education is held constant. I somehow doubt it. If the UW really wants the legislature to keep pace, maybe it could promote tax reform instead of deregulation of higher ed?

  • Trevor

    Has the cost of providing education per capita gone up? Seems to me the UW is quick to point out that per capita state support has gone down, but doesn’t mention whether the cost of providing an education is held constant. I somehow doubt it. If the UW really wants the legislature to keep pace, maybe it could promote tax reform instead of deregulation of higher ed?

  • ratcityreprobate

    @Michael G. Thanks for the summary.

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