Dear Colleagues and concerned members of the CWU community, 

The State Senate and House of Representatives have both released their proposed budgets and both would be devastating to Central and higher education generally.  The cuts, even with federal stimulus money and tuition increases, will be between 11% and 15%.  Thousands of students will be turned away and hundreds of jobs will be lost.   

WE MUST MAKE OUR VOICES HEARD NOW, OR HIGHER EDUCATION IN WASHINGTON WILL BE DEVASTATED FOR DECADES. 

In addition, Central is making plans which would involve cutting faculty, student research, and programs.  We ALSO need to act on these local issues.
To help protect the education of CWU's students, please do the following:

1. Go NOW to WEA's cyberlobby Web site and write the governor and your legislators. You can send the prepared message or write one of your own.  In writing your message, you might want to emphasize the following:
   • The cuts planned in Washington are the highest in the country, and two to three times higher than those in the Global Challenge States. 
   • The cuts will cost at least 2500 jobs in 4 year higher education. 
   • The cuts will cost 10,000 students the opportunity to attend college.   
   • The cuts will send the best students and the best faculty to states that respect education.   
2. Do the same via regular old snail mail or phone calls.
3. Take a look at the open letter published by UFC.  For this to be effective, we need responses at both the State and Local levels. So
   • Spread the word to anyone you know that might value CWU – current students, alumni, parents, community groups, the rest of your faculty, staff, etc.  Anyone and everyone.  Ask them to contact both their legislators and President Gaudino.

Please get on this now.  It’s not too late to affect either the Legislature or the Administration.  If we do nothing, our fates will be completely set by others.

Remember two things – use your home email and computer for any of these efforts.  Also, please do not put any pressure on current students to do anything.  Ask, but don’t push.

Your legislative contacts can be found at http://apps.leg.wa.gov/districtfinder/statewide.aspx; CWU’s president may be contacted at http://www.cwu.edu/president/.