Washington State University involved in CGA Winter Meeting

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Glynda Becker introduces Evan Schatz during a panel discussion at the CGA 2014 Winter Meeting.

Last Thursday the Association for Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) Council for Government Affairs (CGA) kicked off their winter meeting.  The conference provided a series of panel discussions around federal priorities and important opportunities for the APLU community.

During the course of the conference Glynda Becker, Director of the Office of Federal Relations, led a panel discussion titled “Tech-IP Issues, Advocacy, a Case Study: Demystifying Patent Issues”.    The panel included, Sita Pappu, Director of the Office for Commercialization at Washington State University (WSU).  Sita highlighted why patent legislation is important to universities and how legislation, such as the Transparency in Assertion of Patents Act could have detrimental consequences for higher education institutions.  She advocated the need for technology and intellectual property issues to be at the forefront of the CGA member’s watch list.  In addition to speaking on the value of federal relations teams working closely with their tech transfer representatives.

On Friday, Glynda moderated a panel with Evan Schatz, Staff Director for the Senate Budget Committee.  During the panel titled, “FY2015 Federal Budget:  A View From the Hill”, Evan provided a history of the budget process since 2008 and what universities might expect throughout this calendar year.

Overall the conference was a great opportunity to learn about upcoming legislation and potential impacts.  As the legislation continues to be introduced and detailed budget information is released, we will continue to keep you updated.