Accountability language improved. The new language provides that the Higher Education Coordinating Board will determine the percentage of the gap for each measure for each institution. WSU welcomed the change as an opportunity to explain to HEC Board officials that closing the gap by 10 percent for some performance measures is virtually impossible for a land grant institution that accepts students with an average SAT score of 1,000. No change in Pullman enrollment penalty language. A five percent margin for error was allowed for the branch campuses.
Supplemental budget allows for carry-over of pesticide commission monies .
A supplemental budget for the current biennium was also included in the 1997-99 biennial budget bill, HB 2259. The Legislature has passed legislation that will increase tuition for Washington State University students by 4 percent this fall and another 4 percent in 1998 under the terms of a compromise to Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 5927. The conference report basically set tuition increases for all students at 4 percent per year with most of the new funds expected to go to pay faculty salary increases. The only exceptions were the University of Washington, where non-resident undergraduate student tuition will increase by 8.3 percent. WSU unsuccessfully argued this session against different non-resident rates for the two research institutions.