Evergreen’s Requests for the 2025-2027 Biennium Budget

In September 2024, Evergreen made the following requests via the state Office of Financial Management for consideration in the state’s next operating and capital budgets.

Operating Budget Requests:*

Compensation increases: $6,500,000. This would allow the college to provide a three percent raise to faculty and staff in 2025, and a two percent increase in 2026. These raises reflect those negotiated by the state’s public sector unions in 2024.

Evergreen’s Shelton Promise next-stage funding: $901,000. This supports the second year of an exciting pilot program to help graduating students in the underserved Shelton School District attend Evergreen tuition free.

Prison education: $668,000. Evergreen hopes to continue its ground-breaking work in the state’s prisons by expanding our college-level course offerings to incarcerated students.

Help Greener students with accomodation and basic needs: $326,000. Evergreen serves an increasing percentage of students with disabilities or unmet basic needs (food, housing, clothing) who need help to succeed at college. This funding allows the college to expand the current level of services.

Expand Evergreen’s climate curriculum: $1,712,000. This request would draw upon the state’s Climate Commitment Act funding to develop green-job internships and skills training. A second focus would be to build a Northwest Climate Resilience Network in partnership with the State Board of Community and Technical Colleges to help local communities with place-based climate resilience and adaptation planning.

Information technology modernization: $1,304,000. Evergreen seeks to complete the effort that launched with the 2023–25 biennial appropriation to update a host of outdated and end­-of-life software solutions. This investment will improve student experience and operational efficiency.

Lord Mansion maintenance: $150,000. The historic Lord Mansion to the south of the Legislature in Olympia is state-owned facility under Evergreen’s stewardship. Traditionally, the state has provided funds for its maintenance, which requires skilled personnel trained in historic restoration and preservation. The college is asking for funds to hire a custodian dedicated to this work.

Capital Budget Requests:**

Minor Works: $20,130,000. This request will be used to fund preservation and maintenance of Evergreen buildings and facilities.

Capital Projects: $53,225,000. To meet state standards for decarbonization, Evergreen needs to move its natural gas-burning heating system to an electric system. Other major capital projects will include upgrading our water pump system, upgrading IT systems, and beginning design work to renovate aging facilities such as the LAB I building on the Olympia campus.

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*To review the actual operating budget request, you can look at the Office of Financial Management’s Agency Budget Request Portal. Select the 2025-27 regular budget session option from the drop-down menu in the upper right of the page. Another drop-down menu will appear, where you can type in “Evergreen.” “The Evergreen State College” should pop up. Check the box next to it and the search button below. You will then see the complex decision packages that underlie the individual items.

**To review the actual capital budget request, just go to Evergreen’s Capital Plan.