UW To Get A Demotion April 16, 2009
Posted by gordonwatts in University of Washington.trackback
Picked this up while surfing my email:
These unprecedented cuts will permanently kick the University of Washington to second-tier status and throttle programs at Washington State University and Western (note to friends of Western’s Huxley School: It’s rally time). Washington will import more of its talent, just as it exports its top high school grads. No more supercilious guffaws at Oregon and OSU, schools that felt the slow earthquake of 1990’s Measure 5 that starved basic education and ultimately squeezed higher-ed as well.
The article also mentions something I’ve started to hear around the halls here:
The real and anticipated squeeze is already under way. At the UW’s College of Arts and Sciences, four faculty members have announced plans to bolt over the past three weeks. It’s the prelude to a brain drain: Better jump ship before the pirates heave another grappling hook.
The rest of the article is pretty interesting – it goes on to talk about some of the difficulty in arguing for higher education when faced with a zero-sum budget, as the Washington state budget is.
Life as a Physicist 
I’ll be honest — I was accepted into UW’s physics graduate program, and one of the reasons that factored into my decision not to go was hearing about these budget cuts. Education should be the last thing the state is cutting… this is a scandal, but not one you’re ever going to hear in the national media.
People don’t care about science, and that makes me a sad panda.
That is too bad (that you didn’t come to UW)! 🙂 Sadly, what we are seeing right now is much bigger than just science. There is no way we couldn’t be cut somewhat – the hole in Washington’s budget is too big – but the amount we are getting cut by…