There is no escaping the influence of Washington State University in this remote college town. Big signs for the school stand at the entrances to Pullman. A major bridge has Cougar mascot statues on both ends. The university is perched on a hill and dominates the town like a medieval fortress. But the connections run even deeper, to the extent that massive cuts to the university’s budget by the cash-strapped state reverberate through the whole economy here. “Any time there are financial difficulties with the area’s largest employer, there is cause for concern,” said Jack McGrath, who owns The Quilted Heart fabric store downtown. The land-grant university’s 20,000 students and more than 4,000 employees make it almost a monoculture in the town of 29,000 residents. Pullman’s motto is “High tech, higher education, highest quality of life.”
