Presidents lament budget cuts draining state's universities - Katherine Long, Seattle Times

Cutbacks to higher education are causing a brain drain at Washington public universities, and the state is gaining a national reputation for the severity of its cutbacks, the presidents of Washington's six four-year higher-education institutions said Wednesday. "Washington is now known as a place to go headhunting" for out-of-state universities hiring new faculty, said Bruce Shepard, president of Western Washington University (WWU). "This is a real threat, long term, to sustaining the excellence of our universities." The discussion was attended by about 400 people at Town Hall Seattle and was sponsored by The Seattle Times.