WWU Operating Budget

The 2022-2023 Annual State Operating Budget  Recommendation was approved by the Board of Trustees at their June 10, 2022 meeting. Operating Budget details for the current year are published in Fall quarter on our Operating Budget Book resource page.

President Randhawa sent a budget message to the university community on March 9th, outlining the fiscal challenge Western currently faces. The university is responding to these challenges with a set of short-term strategies to reduce expenditures that are effective immediately. Information about these strategies is available on our Short-Term Savings Strategies webpage and there will be two budget forums at the end of March.

Western Washington University moved to an annual, strategic budget development process in 2021 to create a simpler way for budget proposals to be submitted by departments, encourage broad engagement in the university's budget development, and to align budgeting with Western's strategic plan. Previously, budget proposals needed to specify whether the application was for state or internal funding and varied during the first and second years of each biennium.

The Strategic Budgeting Process uses a single, annual call for proposals focusing on priority areas informed by the institution's strategic goals. After submittal, proposals may be considered for internal investment or reinvestment at the division or institutional level, combined or synthesized into larger decision package requests for state funding, or identified for future fund raising efforts. For more information, visit our Strategic Budgeting Process page to learn more about the steps in the process leading to the development of Western's annual operating budget and budget requests to the State or view the timeline for the current year's process.

This process itself will continue to evolve as we learn from each iteration, and the University's current priorities will continue to be a major part of our focus for the next biennium.