"Mr. Transparency Goes to Washington" by Robert M.

Davis On February 10th the House voted unanimously on a measure that would require all of the states public higher educational institutions to post all information pertaining to services and activities fees and that budgets shall be made available to interested parties. The Senate voted unanimously as well to this measure on February 29th, and on March 2nd, House Bill 2325 - 2011-2012 was delivered to the Governor for his signature. Sadly this was not the Commonwealth of Virginia that had approved these measures, but instead it was Washington State. Washington's legislature recognized that students play a pivotal role in recommending how services and activity fees should be expended, and as such, the legislature made it their intent to increase transparency so that expenditures of revenue from services and activities fees are clearly visible and accessible to the students who pay those fees. House Bill 2325 - 2011-2012 also proposed something else of interests; they call for the establishment of student representation through the creation of a services and activities fee committee. That students would have the responsibility for proposing to the administration and the governing board of the college program priorities and budget levels for that portion of program budgets that derive from services and activities fees. This committee; students would hold majority of the voting membership in which members would be recommended by that college's student government association or equivalent. The chairperson would be selected among those members of that committee. The governing board would insure that the services and activities fee committee provides an opportunity for all viewpoints to be heard at a public meeting during its consideration of the funding of student programs and activities. The most significant portion of this legislation comes from Section 2, Point 11, Line 6 and reads as follows: "Annually, by September 30th, the services and activities fees committee at each institution of higher education, in coordination with the administration of the institution of higher education, shall post services and activities fees expenditure information for the prior academic year on the college or university web site so that the information is clearly visible and easily accessible to students and the public. At a minimum, the services and activities fees budget information must include all the major categories of expenditure and the amounts expended in each category." This was encouraging legislation to have stumbled upon to say the least. The state of Washington not unlike the Commonwealth of Virginia has also been battling budget shortfalls and reduced funding to its public higher educational institutions by alleviating these pressures through increased rates of tuition and increases in student charges a-la student fees. The best means of controlling costs in these hard times is to ensure transparency and openness to accessibility to how money is collected and spent. Perhaps allowing the greatest stakeholders in higher education "Students" have greater transparency in how their money is collected and spent, will generate a more well informed consumer and as a result of equitable horizontal information sharing ensure public higher education institutions will not engage in expenditures, and revenue collections that some may qualify as constituting a moral hazard; greater amounts of unnecessary debt which burden our nations future...that future being our students.