SENATE BILL REPORT

ESB 5475

BYSenators Gaspard, West, Tanner, Rinehart, Bauer, Williams, Bender, Moore, Talmadge and Saling; by request of Office of Governor

Establishing the Washington fund for excellence in higher education program.

Senate Committee on Higher Education

Senate Hearing Date(s):January 29, 1987; February 4, 1987; January 28, 1988; February 1, 1988

Majority Report:  Do pass as amended.

      Signed by Senators Saling, Chairman; Patterson, Vice Chairman; Anderson, Hansen, McMullen, Smitherman, von Reichbauer.

Senate Staff:Scott Huntley (786-7421)

                  February 1, 1988

AS PASSED SENATE, FEBRUARY 8, 1988

BACKGROUND:

In 1986 and 1987 numerous national studies offered recommendations to improve higher education.  Two of those reports, produced by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, specifically recommended increasing support for enhancing undergraduate education and encouraging educational innovation in this nation's colleges and universities.  In this state, the Washington Roundtable and the Higher Education Coordinating Board also approved recommendations to increase funding to improve the quality of higher education and encourage institutional innovation.

In 1987 Governor Booth Gardner forwarded a $5 million request to establish a competitive award program to encourage innovative instruction and improve the quality of public higher education.  This request was first reduced to $1 million, and finally, eliminated altogether in the final 1987-89 biennial budget.

SUMMARY:

The Washington fund for excellence in higher education is established and assigned to the Higher Education Coordinating (HEC) Board to administer.  Through this program, the HEC Board may award grants to public colleges and universities or to higher education consortia to encourage improvements which will have a lasting benefit to the institution or to the entire system.  Grants may be awarded for improving:  the quality of undergraduate education, curriculum development, minority student recruitment and retention, articulation between two-year and four-year institutions, assessment, and cooperation between academic and business communities.

The HEC Board is authorized to:  adopt appropriate rules; establish screening committees to help evaluate proposals; set specific grant proposal guidelines each biennium; publish evaluation criteria including special recognition of proposals that use additional resources from private or institutional sources; solicit grant proposals and publicize the program to the institutions; and establish reporting and monitoring requirements.

For the first biennium of the program (1987-89), guidelines must be consistent with goals to:  improve undergraduate education, improve minority student participation at and graduation from higher education institutions; develop curriculum to enhance international awareness; and create programs to improve students' ability to succeed in a competitive economy.

The HEC Board is authorized to solicit and receive gifts, grants and endowments for use in the fund for excellence, and to authorize disbursements from the fund, which is assigned to the custody of the State Treasurer.  The fund is subject to statutorily-defined allotment procedures, but no appropriation is required for disbursement.

The HEC Board is required to provide an annual report to the Governor and the Legislature beginning December 1, 1989 and each December 1 thereafter.

Appropriation:    none

Revenue:    none

Fiscal Note:      available

Senate Committee - Testified: Stan Marshburn, The Evergreen State College; Shirly Ort, Higher Education Coordinating Board