Washington State College Leaders Plead Their Case to Remain Academically Competitive
OLYMPIA, Wash.
Washington’s universities clash on the athletic field and sometimes wage turf wars but presented a united front in their plea for continued help from the Legislature.
Led by the presidents of the University of Washington and Washington State University, the leaders were a tag team earlier this week. They urged the Senate higher education panel to keep expanding access and to guard against top-drawer faculty being raided by out-of-state universities with big endowments and money to burn.
They spent part of their presentations touting their own virtues, each mentioning prominent national rankings. UW President Mark Emmert, for instance, said his university made the Economist’s ranking of “the top 20 universities on Earth.”
Each bragged about unique course offerings, success in attracting minority students and quick turnaround time in offering programs that their local businesses need, such as engineering, computer science and nursing.
But each also made a broader argument that higher education is central to the economic and social success of the state in an increasingly competitive global marketplace.
