The Newsletter

New Officers Elected

Congratulations to:

• Jake Stillwell - President
• Brianne Wood - VP of Legislative Affairs
• Ashley Elliott - VP of Finance
• Logan Bahr - VP of Communications
• Jacob Peltier - VP of Recruitment & Retention

TESC Students Get Involved in Higher Education Advocacy

Last month, Evergreen's student body voted to adopt a waivable $2 fee so that they can advocate for themselves in the higher education policy arena. The ballot measure passed with 79% of the vote. Turn out was high for campus elections, in fact, it was over two times the national average at 30%.

Evergreen has a history of activism, it is located only a few miles from the capitol, it consistently sends more students to the legislative internship program than any other college, it has a well-regarded Masters in Public Administration program, and graduates who litter the halls of the legislature. Nevertheless, the students from Evergreen have not had a consistent presence in the realm of higher education policy. The biggest reason: Evergreen's historical lack of a student government.

No longer. The Geoduck Union is entering its third year as the official representative body. Students built the consensus based student government from the ground up and each year it has gained visibility and recognition. With the passage of the ballot measure, Evergreen students will be able to create a legislative liaison position, lobby, and join the statewide student movement by becoming members of the WSL.

Despite Governor Gregoire's surprise veto of HB 2783, a bill that would have resulted in a "transfer student bill of rights," administrative efforts to ease transfer continue. Students from the WSL are participating in two parallel initiatives that may allow students to understand, in plain language, what credits will transfer where.

One of the efforts is being coordinated jointly by the Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB) and the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) and focuses on the creation of a website that would allow students to easily access the information they need to make intelligent decisions about what courses to take. The vetoed bill, HB 2783, included language that would have created a similar web-based advising tool, and the SBCTC and the HECB had separately submitted proposals to create a website, but the current effort seeks broader input from a variety of groups, including students. Several WSL officers and staff are involved in the work, prioritizing a list of potential "functionalities" to determine just what the website should do and what students would like it to do, while taking into consideration what would make it too expensive to gain the support of the Governor and the Legislature.

The effort to create a web-based advising system is being conducted with the explicit support and co-operation with the Joint Access Oversight Group (JAOG), which was formed in 2003 to consider statewide transfer issues and recommend policy strategies. It is a standing committee that meets about six times a year with representatives from the public and independent academic degree-granting institutions and the HECB. They continue their work in parallel and will be meeting on June 25th at Western Washington University. Several WSL members will be in attendence to ensure that any decisions made reflect student interests. If you are interested in getting involved, please contact Matt Kreiling by email or call 360-359-6473.

Whatever the outcome, the WSL will advocate for an improved transfer system during the 2009 legislative session. The fact that many students, and even academic advisors, don't know whether certain credits will transfer cost students (and the state) money and time. If you have had difficulty transferring, please spend a few minutes answering this survey. By gathering stories from students like you, and sharing them with legislators, we can shine some light onto the problems and help to fix them.

Education Activist:

The Senate adopted a final version of the fiscal 2009 budget resolution just hours ago, and the House is expected to follow suit tomorrow.  This will pave the way for the start of the annual appropriations process.  The $3.03 trillion resolution would allow Congress to appropriate $24.5 billion more than the $991.6 billion President Bush requested in discretionary spending which would possibly include increases to vital higher education programs like GEAR UP, LEAP, and TRIO.

The conference agreement on the budget resolution was adopted by a vote of 48-45 on a largely party-line vote.  To accommodate the absences of hospitalized Sens. Edward Kennedy, D- Mass., and Robert C. Byrd , D-W.Va., Republican Sens. John W. Warner of Virginia and Pete V. Domenici withheld their "no" votes, pairing with the ailing Democrats.

The budget resolution will serve primarily as a blueprint for election-year policies.  Most of the hard choices on spending and tax policy will be deferred to the next Congress and the new president.

Although the President has made it clear that he would veto bills if Congress exceeds his request.  With this threat in mind, Congress has the option of waiting until a new president takes office next year to complete their bills, and possibly get the additional domestic spending they seek.

Regardless, House Appropriations subcommittees are expected to start marking up the 12 fiscal 2009 bills next week, including the Labor Health, Human Services, and Education Bill which includes all higher education funding.  USSA will be working hard to ensure that all of our higher education programs are fully funded at the levels we are requesting and lobbied for on Capitol Hill at this year's Legislative Conference. For more information on the budget please visit the USSA website at www.usstudents.org

National Student Congress 2008

We are less than 2 weeks away from the early registration deadline for this year's Congress which is taking place at the University of Wisconsin Madison from August 2-6th. Everyone should visit the USSA website and register now! If you have questions about Congress or about USSA's Budget & Appropriations request just give us a call in the USSA office at (202)640-6570 or send an email to USSA@usstudents.org

As a recurring feature, this section will attempt to explain some of the more confusing aspects of Washington State higher education policy.

This month: Transfer Jargon

1. Degree Auditing is an online advising tool that allows you to view degree and certificate requirements and track your completed coursework towards completion of chosen degree or certificate program. A version of this service is already available at Bellevue Community College that was a result of a pilot project that was the predecessor of the present effort to creat a web-based advising tool.
2. A Direct Transfer Agreement is defined as that degree awarded by a community college to students who have completed a transfer curriculum. It is meant to provide a community college student with at least 90 transferable quarter credits (60 semester credits). The DTA focuses on meeting the common lower division general education requirements and preparation for the major with 60 quarter credits in the various general education categories. Once the student successfully completes a DTA pathway, all courses required in that degree will transfer to every Washington public baccalaureate institution and to the many Washington independent institutions participating in the agreement. If admitted to the university, the university will consider the transfer student as having junior standing.
3. Associate of Science - Transfer (AS-T): This degree focuses on the math and science courses needed to prepare for biology, chemistry, earth science, physics, computer science and engineering majors. In a course-taking pattern that parallels students preparing at universities for science and engineering as freshmen and sophomores, transfer students pursuing the AS-T complete 45 quarter credits of general education courses at the community college, and the remainder as juniors and seniors.
4. Major Related Program (MRP): Students in some majors must carefully select their elective and general education courses to assure they will be eligible to apply for the major in their junior year. For these majors - business, elementary education, pre-nursing, engineering, engineering technology, technology, secondary science and math teacher preparation - colleges and universities have developed major specific agreements ("major related programs" or MRPs) that assure transfer students complete requirements in a manner parallel to university freshmen and sophomores. Each agreement follows either the DTA or AS-T structure. As many of these majors are quite popular, there may be more qualified applicants than spots in some instances.