Western and UW tell legislature student pay and fund‑split volatility complicate higher‑ed bargaining

Nora Sealander, director of government relations at Western Washington University, and Marissa Gruns, executive director for HR policy and workforce strategy at the University of Washington, told the Joint Committee on Employee Relations that higher‑education institutions face distinctive bargaining and funding challenges tied to the state’s fund‑split approach.

Sealander said Western is the second‑largest employer in Whatcom County with roughly 2,000 FTEs and that compensation funding for many positions is split between state funds and local funds (tuition and fees). She said the fund split has fluctuated across biennia, citing that the fund split rose to 70% state support in 2023–25 then dropped to 51% the following year, which she said created a de facto cut that cost the university about $3,500,000.

Sealander emphasized that Western bargains locally with most unions and that reopener language in contracts links local agreements to state budget decisions. She said Western has no consistent state funding for student employee compensation and that operational student employee bargaining is newly emerging on campus.

At the University of Washington, Marissa Gruns and Jed Bradley described UW’s scale (54,347 employees) and explained that different statutory frameworks apply: RCW 41.56 and RCW 41.80 govern distinct employee groups and bargaining cycles, with RCW 41.80 two‑year cycles tied to the state’s Oct. 1 deadline. Bradley said UW’s budget is roughly 40% state funding and 60% tuition in its base, and that academic student employee positions (graduate TAs and research assistants) are increasingly costly for academic units because many of those positions are funded by core funds or grants without commensurate state appropriations for incremental salary increases.

Both presenters linked local bargaining flexibility and the uncertainty of state fund‑split policy to challenges in planning and retaining staff and students. Sealander urged recognition of student employment as an essential component of retention and persistence in higher education.