Legislative Session 2019 Begins!
Welcome back to session! We are thrilled to be mobilizing our alumni and higher ed supporters for a challenging legislative session. This past fall, we surveyed alumni* about higher ed and learned what they care about most for the University of Washington:
- Maintaining the high quality of a UW education
- Access and affordability
- Graduating students with high-demand skills and degrees
Over the next 105 days, alumni and other stakeholders like you will join us in advocating for the following priorities on the UW’s legislative agenda (a sampling):
Investments in quality and excellence:
- Four percent compensation increases for faculty and staff, and an approved and adequately-funded collective bargaining agreement, to recruit and retain the best personnel
- A commitment by the Legislature to pay at least 50% of incremental compensation and central services expenses, as it does for all other public universities in Washington
Investments in access and affordability:
- Continuing on the path to fully funding the State Need Grant, which pays tuition expenses for students with demonstrated financial need, by 2022 as promised in the 2018 legislative session
Investments in high-demand degrees:
- Significant investments to expand enrollment in STEM degrees at all 3 UW campuses
- $70M for a multidisciplinary Health Sciences building, which would bring together six of UW’s health-related programs into one state-of-the-art learning environment
- $4M to teach data science and analytics to non-STEM students in the College of Arts & Sciences
Learn more about the University’s legislative agenda here. Be sure to join UW Impact to make your voice heard this session – we will send you action alerts when you can have the greatest impact. We look forward to advocating with you!