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WA Bill of the Day: House Bill 2703

A significant change in status that doesn’t seem to have gotten a lot of attention yet.

To this point, when Washington state officially talks about its “state universities,” it means the University of Washington and Washington State University – those two and no others. (Similarly, the only official “state college” is the Evergreen State College at Olympia.)

House Bill 2703 would change that. It would include Central Washington University, Eastern Washington University, and Western Washington University as formal state universities alongside the larger two.

What’s not totally clear is what that would mean as a practical effect. Most of the governance, rules and regulations surrounding UW or WSU are made either by the institutions’ separate boards, or sometimes by the legislature. Is this just a point of pride, or is there something more? This could be worth a watch.

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