New Yorker cartoon Sept. 21, 2015

The UW Chapter of the American Association of University Professors has made higher education finance in Washington state our chief priority for advocacy work in 2014-2015. To advance this priority, we are working with partners such as ASUW, GPSS, UAW 4121, EOI and SEIU 925.

Some of the campaigns for higher ed finance in Washington state, include College Promise Coalition and UW Impact. The Promise Coalition has  partner organizations, and UW Impact is sponsored by the UW Alumni Association. More grassroots organization with broad faculty, student and staff stakeholder interests is needed. As the legislature struggles to fund the McCleary decision mandate to comply with the state’s paramount duty “to make ample provision for the education of all children residing within its borders,” higher ed funding (along with funding for social services and other non-entitlement programs) could be threatened. And the only solution to that problem is to expand revenues to collectively cover all the state’s obligations, including higher education.

ASUW just put out the “Meet us in the Middle” report, which frames the approach to keeping higher ed affordable in Washington state. (This affordability agenda includes keeping transportation and housing affordable for students, along with tuition.)

UAW represents RAs and TAs on campus, and has worked on higher ed affordability for those constituents with some recent successes on getting tuition and fees more fully covered by on-campus RA & TA jobs.

SEIU represents about 8000 workers at the UW, as well as additional education workers at WWU, family home child care workers across the state, and some categories of K-12 employees.