To the WSU Community:

Today we received news of the legislative compromise operating budget for our university. We expect information regarding our capital budget to be available soon.

We are still reviewing the operating budget in its entirety, but here are some essential points:

• It includes a biennial reduction of 21.5 percent in our state allocation, which is equivalent to $112.3 million
• The budget is built on the assumption of a 14 percent tuition increase for resident undergraduates for each of the two years of the biennium. This tuition increase equates to about $42.4 million in revenue for the university over the biennium
• With the addition of tuition and one-time federal stimulus money, the net overall budget reduction for WSU equates to 10.38 percent or $54.2 million over the biennium. On an annualized basis, this means we will have to reduce our budget by about $27 million for each of the two years of the biennium

The release of this budget will allow us to follow the previously announced time line for our decision making. We will study the budget numbers and prepare our proposed budget plan for release on May 1. Through the month of May, we will be gathering input on that plan, with a goal of finalizing it around June 1.

I thank you all for your continued support and understanding as we work our way through this process.

Sincerely,

Elson S. Floyd, Ph.D.
President