UW’s excellence threatened, president tells legislators

By Steve Hill
University Week

President Richard L. McCormick delivered a message of excellence and risk in Olympia on Monday.

Testifying before the House Appropriations Committee, President McCormick first emphasized the national competitiveness of the University, then warned that low faculty and staff salaries are jeopardizing the competitive quality of the institution.

McCormick particularly underscored the public benefit that a nationally ranked research institution brings to a region, and that the University of Washington is a powerful economic driver in the state.

“Every place in the nation that is enjoying technology-driven economic development has one or more research universities driving growth and opportunity,” McCormick told the legislators. “You’ve got one and we earnestly seek your support for its continued excellence.”

He also noted that access to a major research university was a great benefit to the state’s students and graduates. With the Legislature’s support, McCormick said the UW would continue to improve the lives of graduates in the form of higher salaries, professional mobility and an improved quality of life. But he also emphasized the role the University plays in improving life for everyone in the state of Washington. He said the UW provides for increased tax revenue, greater productivity, increased consumption and a higher quality of civic life.

McCormick gave much of the credit for the University’s success to the faculty and said that closing a 14.6 percent gap between UW salaries and the salaries of faculty at peer institutions was “our greatest budgetary need.” That gap, he said, doesn’t even take into account the high cost of living in Seattle.

The University is requesting a 6 percent pay increase in 2001 and a 4 percent hike in 2002. Those requests total about $54 million but wouldn’t close the salary gap with peer universities, only prevent the gap from widening. Gov. Gary Locke’s proposed budget only funded salary increases of 2.2 and 2.5 percent and it appears unlikely that the legislative budgets will improve on those amounts.

“We’re having increasing difficulty recruiting and retaining top faculty, and all of the outstanding aspects of the University - about which I bragged a few minutes ago - depend on our continued ability to have top-flight faculty.”

McCormick made a similar appeal for teaching assistant and research assistant pay increases. The UW requested $3 million to improve salaries for teaching assistants and research assistants.

“Teaching assistants and research assistants are graduate students, typically Ph.D. students who do some of the University’s most important work in teaching and in research,” he said. “They’re especially hard hit by the cost of living in the Seattle area. We’d like you to join us in recognizing that with this special market conditions increase for them.”

In talking about the University’s record of excellence, McCormick stressed the success that the University has achieved in the annual award of federal research dollars. The UW is number one among public research universities in obtaining federal research funding, he told the committee. Again, McCormick credited the faculty for that distinction.

“That outstanding federal research funding is a measure of the excellence of our faculty and it’s also a great benefit to our students,” McCormick said. They study, he said, “with faculty who know more than is in any textbook because they themselves are at the cutting edge of creating new knowledge.”

Increasingly, McCormick said, the students are getting involved in that research and other forms of experiential learning.

The president acknowledged the severe budget constraints facing the state’s lawmakers. A series of initiatives that impact revenues and expenditures combined with previous tax cuts have seriously hampered the Legislature’s budget process.

“We appreciate the very difficult fiscal situation with which the Legislature is coping in writing the 2001-03 budget. But this is a crucial moment for higher education in our state. Much is needed, much is possible and much is at risk.”