[Vision2020] Budget problems in Washington State

[Melynda Huskey]

Well, good evening, "Ed."  And you, too, "Fiat."  Shall we go back to the question of the "sexual orientation and gender identity" group?
  
First of all, it's a little naive to imagine that WSU exists solely to educate undergraduates.  That's a component of its function, but it's not the whole story.  We are one of 125 research-extensive universities in the nation, and a good deal of what happens in Pullman has absolutely no direct connection to undergraduates at all.  We receive federal grant expenditures "in excess of $80 million per year and total research expenditures in excess of $150 million per year. Fifty-four percent of WSU research ($81 million) is supported by federal sponsored funding, 25 percent ($37 million) by non-federal sponsored funding, 16 percent ($24 million) by state of Washington appropriations, and 5 percent ($8 million) by federal land-grant appropriations."  Much of that money goes to salaries for people who do no undergraduate teaching at all--such as lab technicians and research professors.  Our research centers, including Materials Engineering, Neuroscience, and Bioengineering, primarily focus on creating new knowledge (and the technology transfer which goes with it).  They are only ancillarily related to the task of teaching undergraduate students--but they are vital to the mission of the institution.

Which brings us to point #2--WSU is a major employer, with more than 5000 employees in Pullman.  Like many large employers which need workers with technical expertise, WSU has realized it's cheaper to provide services for employees which make them more efficient than to hope that they don't need them, or to cut them loose when they do.  For that reason, we provide the Employee Assistance Program, which includes counseling services for all kinds of issues which impinge on people's work life.  Group counseling is an extremely efficient form of counseling--particularly where, as at WSU, there's a graduate program in counseling, so that only one counselor is needed to pair with a grad student to facilitate a group with as many as 15 clients.  

Not surprisingly, sexual orientation and gender identity issues can be extremely painful for adults--if one decides at 50 to address a long-suppressed transsexuality (for example), that transition can affect an entire office.  Why not provide cheap, efficient, and effective support for a valued employee facing that prospect?  We also provide groups which assist folks with anger management, grief and loss, eating disorders, domestic violence . . . The cost of running a weekly counseling group is really quite minimal; I'm quite sure that we can't offset Washington State's miserable financial situation by canceling this group.  

Now if I were a cynical woman, I'd wonder if you weren't just trying to be inflammatory, Ed--you know, tossing out a little homophobic self-righteousness in the hopes of stirring the pot.  But I'm sure that's an unworthy thought.

Melynda HuskeyGet more from the Web.  FREE MSN Explorer download : http://explorer.msn.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20050311/0a0c4a11/attachment-0001.htm