Washburn President details growth, manufacturing center and asks committee for $3.3 million operating grant increase

Washburn University President Julianne Mazachek told the House Committee on Higher Education Budget in Topeka that the university has seen sustained enrollment growth and is seeking a $3,300,000 increase in its municipal operating grant to support that growth and expanded student services.

Mazachek, who identified herself as the university president, briefed the committee on Washburn’s funding mix and recent uses of state and local dollars. She said Washburn is governed independently as a municipal public university and that roughly two-thirds of support for the university campus comes from a countywide local sales tax and student tuition, with the balance from the state operating grant, auxiliaries and other grants. “We are primarily a teaching undergraduate institution,” Mazachek said. She also described Washburn’s technical college, a long-standing law school and limited graduate programs.

The university described three priorities tied to the funding request: complete and open its new manufacturing education…