Bill passes tuition decision to Board of Trustees, hurting EWU

The state Senate voted to approve a bill last week that is predicted to have a negative effect on EWU students who depend on financial aid.

The state House of Representatives will vote on Bill 6562 to decide whether future tuition control will be transferred from the state Legislature to the local university governing boards of the three Washington state public universities: University of Washington, Washington State University and Western Washington University.

“Our main concern is that as tuition goes up at WWU, UW and WSU, they will need more money for financial aid,” said Kris Byrum, ASEWU legislative affairs representative and member of the Student Legislative Action Coalition (SLAC). “Being that the state is not going to add anymore revenue into the financial aid program, the money that these institutions would need may have to come from EWU, CWU and the Evergreen State College.”

The bill will allow tuition increases by local university governing bodies of up to 14 percent per year with requirements not to exceed an average total of a 9-percent increase in 15 years.

The shift in tuition controls would give the power of tuition increases to unaccountable and unelected authorities, Byrum said.

Senator Schoesler, Eastern’s ninth district legislative representative, said that he does not support this bill and that it would harm EWU if passed.

“Although 6562 does not specifically name EWU in the bill, Eastern students need to be against it,” Byrum said. “If this bill is seen to be beneficial to the universities being affected, then we could potentially see this becoming policy at Eastern, even though it would harm students.”

Jordan Johnston, ASEWU legislative liaison, has been working in Olympia against bills that will negatively affect EWU and has been meeting with legislators regarding higher education issues.

EWU is not included in the legislation to localize tuition authority and hike up students’ tuition costs because of Johnston’s work, the Washington Student Association, SLAC and efforts of the ASEWU Higher Education Day held in Olympia Feb. 1, he said.

“Students forced this change,” Byrum said. “Without these groups of students, we would probably be looking at an entirely different bill.”

ASEWU Higher Education Day was Byrum’s plan to bring 24 student representatives to Olympia to meet with state legislators and discuss political issues that concern Eastern, he said.

Byrum and other ASEWU student representatives have written e-mails to legislators urging them to vote against bills that may negatively affect EWU.

Students who want to be more politically active in issues involving the university and their own interests should volunteer with SLAC, write their representatives short e-mails, write their local newspapers and register to vote, Byrum said.

“Any student can join or help out in the efforts,” he said. “They are a big asset to our university’s efforts to protect higher education’s affordability and accessibility.”

Students who want to voice their opinions can contact the ASEWU council in PUB 303 during weekdays.