Jacobsen sponsors higher ed bills, supports tuition hike

Kayla Webley
2005-02-15
The Daily

OLYMPIA -- Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, may have been at the UW when students gathered to protest the Vietnam War in Red Square -- which was then just a "big, green spot," he said -- but his dedication to the University has not faded over the years.

During this legislative session, Jacobsen has sponsored approximately 13 bills and resolutions that would affect the UW in one way or another, if passed.

"I have always been fond of the University; it's an amazing institution," said Jacobsen, who graduated from the UW in 1972 with a bachelor's degree in history.

Watered down beer

"UW is a great institution but I am worried about the quality of education if we don't get more funding in there," he said.

Jacobsen said he is specifically worried about the quality of education diminishing if the UW is not able to offer faculty members competitive salaries or has to further increase class size.

According to Jacobsen, if the UW's quality fades, getting it back -- specifically by hiring high-caliber faculty -- will not be an easy task.

"I dropped out a couple of times and when you drop out you can always get back in," he said. "But when the quality drops out of the University. it's done and it is going to take 20 to 30 years to get it back."

Jacobsen cited an example of this diminishing quality with something most college students can relate to --a glass of beer.

If one has a glass of beer and two-thirds of it is paid for by the state, if the cost of ingredients suddenly goes up and no extra funding is given, beer quality falls, he explained. The lack of funding would force distributors to lay off employees or add more water to the beer, diminishing the quality of the beverage.

"Students don't know what the previous quality was, so they don't know that it is getting watered down," said Jacobsen. "If you never had it when it was good, you don't know what it is like."

A new direction

Jacobsen said he has ideas about how to improve the funding crisis at the UW, but he feels most students will only appreciate them after they graduate.

"I'm going to scare the hell out of you, but because the quality is suffering we have to let the university look at raising tuition," said Jacobsen.

"I'm not going to be able to show my face on campus for months," he added several times during the interview.

Jacobsen supports raising tuition because the UW student body is "affluent" and tuition is low, he said, especially compared to universities state- and nation-wide.

Jacobsen did advocate raising financial aid to help students who would be hurt by steeper tuition.

There is too much emphasis placed on having low tuition rates, he said.

"This is the one time in your life that you get to go to university and [students] only focus on cheap tuition," he said. "After you get out people will ask, 'did you learn anything?' not, 'what did you pay?'"

Jacobsen said having a high-quality of education at the UW not only benefits students, but also the city of Seattle and Washington State.

"Seattle wouldn't be the same if the U wasn't there. It would be a Podunk little town --it'd be like Pullman," said Jacobsen, unleashing his true UW loyalty. "And because [the UW] is a research university, it contributes to the well-being of our state economy."