Western Washington University is requesting an increase to its general fund–state (GFS) budget of $77.7 million (38.1%) for 2025–27. Most of that increase ($71.8 million) would be new policy. (See the box at the bottom of this post for budget and fund terminology.) The total increase for WWU would significantly exceed the total requested changes for each of the other four-year institutions.

There are two main policy proposals. First, WWU is requesting $21.4 million in 2025–27 and $21.4 million in 2027–29 to increase its state funding so that per-pupil state funding for WWU matches that of Central Washington University. In 2023, WWU had the lowest per-pupil state funding among the higher education institutions: $8,949 compared to $9,847 for CWU and $22,784 for Evergreen.

(Note that WWU has higher enrollment than CWU, so in 2023, WWU’s state funds totaled $106.9 million and CWU’s totaled $78.7 million. Note, too, that the state funding numbers do not include tuition.)

According to the budget request, “Unlike K­-12 education in Washington and higher education systems in many other states, Washington does not fund higher education on a per student basis. The lack of a cohesive funding policy is disincentivizing enrollments.”

The second major policy request is $27.2 million in 2025–27 and $36.0 million in 2027–29 so that the state is fully funding compensation and central services charges that are approved by the Legislature (tuition revenues are currently used to cover a portion of these costs). The request would also fund WWU’s contract with educational student employees.

According to the request, “Current tuition policy, which allows for inflationary increases to resident undergraduate tuition based on the 14­-year average annual percentage growth rate in the median hourly wage for Washington state, means that tuition rate increases are frequently lower than the compensation increases adopted by the state.”

(Previous posts on 2025–27 agency requests are here. Our reports on the projected 2025–27 budget shortfall are here and here.)