HOUSE BILL REPORT

                  HB 1305

             As Reported By House Committee on:

                      Higher Education

Title:  An act relating to a Giovanni Costigan endowed teaching chair.

Brief Description:  Establishing the Giovanni Costigan endowed teaching chair.

Sponsor(s):  Representatives Nelson, Prince, Jacobsen, Miller, Pruitt, Appelwick, Brekke, Valle, Paris, Phillips, R. King, Wineberry and Anderson.

Brief History:

  Reported by House Committee on:

Higher Education, February 11, 1991, DP.

HOUSE COMMITTEE ON

HIGHER EDUCATION

Majority Report: Do pass.  Signed by 12 members:  Representatives Jacobsen, Chair; Ogden, Vice Chair; Wood, Ranking Minority Member; May, Assistant Ranking Minority Member; Basich; Dellwo; Fraser; Ludwig; Miller; Prince; Sheldon; and Spanel. 

Minority Report: Without recommendation.  Signed by 1 member:  Representative Van Luven. 

Staff:  Susan Hosch (786-7120).

Background:  In the past five years, the Legislature has created four programs designed both to match state funds with private donations, and to attract exemplary faculty and graduate students to Washington's colleges and universities.  Through the Distinguished Professorship and Graduate Student Fellowship Programs, state funds are matched with private donations to create endowed positions at the four-year college and universities. 

In the Community College Exceptional Faculty Awards Program, state funds and private donations are equally matched either to reward outstanding service by individual faculty members or to fund faculty development activities.

Through the Warren G. Magnuson Institute for Biomedical Research and Health Professions Training, individuals engaged in research into diabetes, Parkinson's disease, osteoporosis and other medical disorders will receive funding and support.  Funding for the institute will be provided through a combination of methods, including the earnings on an endowment created when state funds are doubly matched by private donations or federal funds.

Summary of Bill:  The Giovanni Costigan Endowed Teaching Chair is established at the University of Washington.  The chair will be in the Department of History.  There are three purposes for the chair.  These purposes include enriching the lives of undergraduates by providing them with excellent instruction in various historical fields.  Another purpose is supporting recent graduates with doctoral degrees who have exhibited an exceptional ability to teach undergraduates.  Finally, the chair will help to ensure that Dr. Costigan's commitment to undergraduate education and public service continues to inspire the university community.

The Giovanni Costigan Trust Fund is created.  The fund will be administered by the state treasurer.  Appropriated money will be deposited in the fund and invested by the treasurer.  The treasurer will release $500,000 from the trust fund to the University of Washington when the university can match that amount with an equal amount of private donations.  Private donations are defined as moneys from non-state sources.  No appropriation is necessary for expenditures from the fund.

Once the private donations and state matching funds are received by the university, the money will be deposited in the university's local endowment fund.  The university will invest the moneys in the endowment fund and may augment them with additional private donations.  The principal of the endowment fund must not be expended.  The earnings on the endowment fund must be used exclusively to support the purposes of the Giovanni Costigan Endowed Chair.

Fiscal Note:  Requested February 11, 1991.

Appropriation:  None.

Effective Date:  Ninety days after adjournment of session in which bill is passed.

Testimony For:  The endowed chair proposed in this legislation honors the life and scholarly accomplishments of a unique man.  Giovanni Costigan was an educator whose appreciation of history and world events, articulate method of delivery, and commitment to excellence in undergraduate education inspired students at the University of Washington for 41 years.  Higher Education has a tradition of creating endowed chairs to honor outstanding educators.  This tradition is akin to the honor recently paid by the House to Representative O'Brien and by the Senate to Lieutenant Governor Cherberg when those chambers named buildings after two public servants who had spent much of their adult lives in public office.

Testimony Against:  None.

Witnesses:  Representative Nelson; Ralph Mero, Giovanni Costigan Foundation; Fritz Levy, University of Washington history professor; and Winnie Boland, University of Washington librarian.