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OLYMPIA -- Inspired by one woman's ire over university salaries, Rep. Larry Haler is hoping to pass a law holding state-funded universities more accountable for how they spend taxpayer dollars.
The Richland Republican has been talking with Laurel Piippo of Richland for more than a year about the money paid to Washington State University's top executives in the wake of a controversy over the assignment of ex-provost Steven Hoch to the Tri-Cities branch campus.
Hoch left his position as provost less than two months into his tenure after an altercation with another administrator that ended in a hallway shoving match.
But his contract allowed him to stay on as tenured faculty at 82 percent of his $300,000 provost's salary. He then was assigned to the Richland campus.
That got Piippo so incensed she started blasting e-mails and letters to lawmakers, the Herald and anyone else who would listen, decrying what she saw as wasteful spending.
During the 2009 legislative session, Haler introduced a bill that would have prevented any compensation for public university presidents other than base salary from being paid with state general fund money.
That was partly in response to Piippo's complaint that WSU President Elson Floyd's handling of the Hoch incident showed he hadn't earned a raise and the promised $500,000 in deferred compensation he's set to receive in 2012.
This year, Haler has taken his idea further by proposing House Bill 2859. Along with the provision about state funding of university executive salaries, it would require the state's Higher Education Coordinating Board to collect various data from public universities and post it online in a user-friendly format.
The idea is to have greater accountability by state-funded universities by allowing the public to evaluate outcomes in a number of areas.
Among the data that would be included in this "dashboard" website would be the cost of instruction; institutional funding by source; average state funding allocation per resident undergraduate student; average salary and benefits for full-time faculty and staff; student-to-faculty ratio; percentage of first-time, full-time freshmen who earn a degree within four, five or six years; students' employment rate within three quarters of graduation; and salary and benefit information for the top 10 highest compensated university employees.
The information is intended to show taxpayers and students how much bang they're getting for their buck, Haler said.
The bill mostly received support during testimony at a public hearing in the House Higher Education Committee on Tuesday, but with a few questions and concerns.
Jono Hanks, director of the Associated Students of the University of Washington's Office of Governmental Affairs, supported the dashboard concept. But he also said he worried that if state money couldn't be used to pay executives' bonuses and other compensation the money would come from students' pockets.
"Our primary concern is about one-third of a president's salary would not be accounted for under this bill," Hanks said.
Bill Lyne, president of the United Faculty of Washington State, said while he supported the notion of holding the line on executive salaries, he worried the bill would divert discussion from the real issues of higher education funding the Legislature will tackle during the session.
The state faces a $2.6 billion revenue shortfall for the remainder of the 2009-11 biennium. Cuts have been proposed to higher education funding as well as student financial aid, although Gov. Chris Gregoire has said she'd like to see the Legislature find a way to save financial aid programs.
"I'm worried the symbolic might overshadow the reality," Lyne said to the committee. "If we fired all six (public) university presidents, we would save $3 million. ... I don't think this should dominate the conversation about higher education or higher education funding this session."
He said the reason salaries for public university presidents in Washington are high compared with other states is that the schools are underfunded by the state. That means university presidents must in essence be professional fundraisers rather than the academics of old, he said.
"A better way to solve the problem is to better fund universities," Lyne said.
A recent survey by the Chronicle of Higher Education ranked University of Washington President Mark Emmert's $905,000 annual salary second in the nation for public universities. The Ohio State University President Gordon Gee was first at $1.5 million.
Haler said the pay earned by university executives is disproportionate to money spent on higher education in the state, citing reports that Washington ranks 48th in the nation for higher education funding.
He agreed with Lyne that better funding is needed.
"I think we need to get a little more real in funding, in getting state funding reallocated to state universities," Haler said after the hearing.
-- Michelle Dupler: 360-753-0862; mdupler@tricityherald.com
