Regents and trustees from Washington’s public baccalaureate institutions met with state legislators in Olympia on Thursday, discussing top priorities facing the state’s colleges including compensation, workforce and infrastructure needs.
Regents Jenette Ramos and Enrique Cerna participated on behalf of WSU in the event known as Regents and Trustees Day, which has been held remotely the past two years. The group brought an important voice back to Olympia as members of the governing boards at the state’s colleges and universities advocated in unison for their institution’s top priority of enhanced compensation for faculty and staff, an inflation undermining effort to retain quality faculty and staff and combat the rising cost of living. They also advocated for student success programs and workforce development efforts that the institutions are pursuing state support for in this session. Such requests include WSU priorities to support College of Nursing re-accreditation and establish new degree programs in social work and public health.
Lastly, regents and trustees requested capital budget support for infrastructure needs shared across college campuses. At WSU, this includes requests to support deferred maintenance efforts, build a new engineering student success building in Pullman, renovate a series of aging facilities on the Pullman campus and design a new Team Health Building in Spokane.
