Democratic state Reps. Debra Lekanoff of the 40th legislative district and Joe Timmons of the 42nd district visited Western Washington University for a town hall meeting on Feb. 21, hoping to hear from students about issues they’re concerned about.
The meeting, which took place at 2 p.m. in Miller Hall, was formatted like a Q&A session. The room was filled with about 50 people, all there to meet the representatives and ask questions.
The main issues brought up by students were cuts to higher education, rising cost of living, the status of Western’s student union and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Western has been historically underfunded compared to other state schools, receiving about $1,000 less per student compared to other universities in Washington, according to Timmons. It receives the lowest amount of per-student funding, the next lowest being Central Washington University.
On top of that, the Washington state Legislature cut over $400 million from higher education in their finalized 2025-27 budget to address state debt.
“I’m tired of higher education being on the chopping block,” Timmons said.
Timmons and Lekanoff are sponsoring a bill that would require the state to at least get Western’s funding on par with Central’s. Timmons said it is too expensive to pass this legislative session, but it’s important to get the ball rolling on the issue.
Lekanoff said she is working with Western President Sabah Randhawa to shift the responsibility for the university’s indirect cost to the state rather than students’ tuition. She also brought up that Democratic Rep. Alex Ramel, also representing the 40th district, is looking into reducing energy costs at Western, which would lower tuition as well.
There will likely be cuts to higher education in the next biennial budget, Timmons said, but they’re trying to prioritize financial aid, institutional funding for universities and building a long-term strategy for funding higher education.
“This year, we don’t have the answer,” Lekanoff said.
In the last five years, median rent in Bellingham has increased 37%, said Sophia Maynard, Associated Students vice president for governmental affairs, who was moderating the meeting.
Timmons said he thinks the solution is to build more housing, as there’s more demand than supply in the market right now, so building more would lower prices. He said they’ve passed bills in prior years to try to encourage the construction of condos and duplexes, targeting first-time homeowners, but it will take a few years to meet the demand.
In the meantime, a rent stabilization bill passed during the last legislative session, which prevents landlords from raising rent more than 7% plus inflation, maxed out at 10%, with exceptions for new construction.
Lekanoff said she tried to pass an amendment offering a better policy for students, veterans, seniors and people with disabilities, but her amendment did not get support from the House or Senate because they wanted to give the bill time to be implemented without additional amendments. She said she has plans to try again in the future.
The bill that would require Western to recognize operational student employees as a part of Western Academic Workers United passed the House on Feb. 14, and is moving through the Senate. The bill died last legislative session because it included other regional universities, making its fiscal note too high to pass. The new bill only impacts Western.
“There’s many good reasons for it to pass, and no good reason for it not to,” WAWU member Colleen Ryan said. She said if the bill is signed into law, they hope to see operational student employees at the bargaining table in spring.
Multiple students brought up concerns about the presence of ICE in Bellingham and Washington as a whole. Timmons said the House passed a bill preventing impersonation of law enforcement officers, and Lekanoff said the Senate passed three bills regarding ICE agents’ access to certain public spaces, use of cameras that automatically read license plates and face covering requirements.
After the meeting, Lekanoff and Timmons said they felt inspired hearing students’ concerns and seeing all of them show up to the meeting.
“This is where hope is,” Lekanoff said.
Noelle Reger (she/her) is a second-year journalism student and city life reporter for The Front this quarter. When she's not reading or writing, she can usually be found gambling at the claw machines in Sharetea. You can reach her at noellereger.thefront@gmail.com.
