WICHE & Utah Celebrate 50 Years

Boulder, Colorado — The Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education (WICHE) is celebrating 50 years as a force shaping higher education in the West. WICHE, along with Utah and 14 other member states, works collaboratively to expand educational access and excellence for the West’s citizens. WICHE is the only organization in the West that focuses exclusively on higher education issues, from accountability to tuition and fees to distance learning and innovation. Its primary issue – access – has been one of the region’s most pressing educational and social issues, from the days of the GI Bill down to the present.

Utah has been an integral part of WICHE since joining the commission in 1953. In fact, Utah Gov. Herbert B. May was one of four Western governors who met in 1948 to brainstorm how to best structure an interstate collaborative focused on higher education. Originally founded to broaden access to medical, dental, and veterinary schools for students in states that didn’t support such programs, WICHE currently enrolls more than 18,000 students in 13 professional degree fields, 134 graduate programs, and scores of undergraduate disciplines. Today, when our economy demands a highly educated workforce, WICHE actively supports the idea that every student should be prepared for college, and everyone should have access to a college education.

Utah's students and their families are the primary beneficiaries of WICHE’s three Student Exchange programs: the Professional Student Exchange Program (PSEP), Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE), and Western Regional Graduate Program (WRGP). They saved some $2.4 million in tuition and fees this year through WUE, which enables Utah’s students to enroll in institutions in other states and pay 150 percent of resident tuition. Almost 600 of Utah’s undergraduate students, as well as a number of graduate students, are currently enrolled in out-of-state programs via WICHE. Through PSEP, 47 Utah professional students are studying out of state in 2002-03 in three fields: veterinary medicine, optometry, and podiatry; about 65 percent of these students return to the state to practice.

Utah has been an active participant in several other WICHE projects: it is one of nine state members of the Western Consortium for Accelerated Learning Opportunities (WCALO). Funded with $2.4 million from the federal Advanced Placement Incentive Program over two years, the consortium is increasing the number of low-income students enrolling and succeeding in Advanced Placement courses and other accelerated-learning options.

More about WICHE

WICHE’s 15 member states – Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming – work collaboratively to promote innovation, cooperation, resource sharing, and sound public policy among states and institutions, strengthening higher education's contributions to the region's social, economic, and civic life. WICHE’s programs include Policy Analysis and Research, which offers analysis, support, and data to constituents on a variety of issues; Programs and Services, which manages the Student Exchange Programs and supports other innovative initiatives, including the recently launched NEON (Northwest Educational Outreach Network), an interstate collaboration that taps the “anywhere, anytime” benefits of distance education; WCET (Western Cooperative for Educational Telecommunications), an international leader working with states and institutions to advance the effective use of technology in higher education; the Mental Health Program, which seeks to enhance the public systems of care for persons with mental illnesses, children with serious emotional disturbances, and their families; and the Consortium for North American Higher Education Collaboration (CONAHEC), a rapidly expanding trilateral initiative.

Each state has three gubernatorially appointed commissioners, who help guide the work of the commission: Cecelia H. Foxley, commissioner of higher education at the Utah System of Higher Education, Salt Lake City; Sen. David Gladwell, North Ogden; and E. George Mantes, regent, Utah State Board of Regents, Salt Lake City, currently serve Utah on the commission. In addition, WICHE's Legislative Advisory Committee works to strengthen state policymaking in higher education, engaging legislators in the discussion of higher ed issues and seeking their input on strategies for interstate collaboration. Sen. David Gladwell represents Utah on this committee.

A dinner to honor WICHE’s 50th anniversary and Utah’s participation in the commission, attended by Gov. Michael O. Leavitt, will be held on May 19, 2003, at the University of Utah’s Rice-Eccles Stadium in Salt Lake City. WICHE is also holding its spring meeting in Salt Lake City on May 19-20.

5/16/2003

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