53B-4-101 - WICHE compact.
53B-4-101. WICHE compact.
As empowered by law, the governor of Utah has duly entered into a compact the text ofwhich is as follows:
Whereas, the future of this Nation and of the Western States is dependent upon the qualityof the education of its youth; and
Whereas, many of the Western States individually do not have sufficient numbers ofpotential students to warrant the establishment and maintenance within their borders of adequatefacilities in all of the essential fields of technical, professional, and graduate training, nor do all ofthe States have the financial ability to furnish within their borders institutions capable of providingacceptable standards of training in all of the fields mentioned above; and
Whereas, it is believed that the Western States, or groups of such states within the Region,cooperatively can provide acceptable and efficient educational facilities to meet the needs of theRegion and of the students thereof:
Now, therefore, the States of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho,Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming do hereby covenantand agree as follows:
Each of the compacting states and territories pledges to each of the other compactingstates and territories faithful cooperation in carrying out all the purposes of this compact.
The compacting states and territories hereby create the Western Interstate Commission forHigher Education, hereinafter called the Commission. The Commission shall be a body corporateof each compacting state and territory and an agency thereof. The Commission shall have all thepowers and duties set forth herein, including the power to sue and be sued, and such additionalpowers as may be conferred upon it by subsequent action of the respective legislatures of thecompacting states and territories.
The Commission shall consist of three resident members from each compacting state orterritory. At all times one commissioner from each compacting state or territory shall be aneducator engaged in the field of higher education in the state or territory from which he isappointed.
The commissioners from each state and territory shall be appointed by the governor asprovided by law in the state or territory. Any commissioner may be removed or suspended fromoffice as provided by the law of the state or territory from which he shall have been appointed.
The terms of each commissioner shall be four years. Each commissioner shall hold officeuntil his successor shall be appointed and qualified. If any office becomes vacant for any reason,the governor shall appoint a commissioner to fill the office for the remainder of the unexpiredterm.
Any business transacted at any meeting of the Commission must be by affirmative vote ofa majority of the whole number of compacting states and territories.
One or more commissioners from a majority of the compacting states and territories shallconstitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
Each compacting state and territory represented at any meeting of the Commission is
entitled to one vote.
The Commission shall elect from its number a chairman and a vice chairman, and mayappoint, and at its pleasure dismiss or remove, such officers, agents, and employees as may berequired to carry out the purpose of this Compact. The Commission shall fix and determine theirduties, qualifications, and compensation, having due regard for the importance of theresponsibilities involved.
The commissioners shall serve without compensation, but shall be reimbursed for theiractual and necessary expenses from the funds of the Commission.
The Commission shall adopt a seal and bylaws and shall adopt and promulgate rules andregulations for its management and control.
The Commission may elect such committees as it deems necessary for the carrying out ofits functions.
The Commission shall establish and maintain an office within one of the compacting statesfor the transaction of its business and may meet at any time, but in any event must meet at leastonce a year. The Chairman may call such additional meetings and upon the request of a majorityof the commissioners of three or more compacting states or territories shall call additionalmeetings.
The Commission shall submit a budget to the governor of each compacting state andterritory at such time and for such period as may be required.
The Commission shall, after negotiations with interested institutions, determine the cost ofproviding the facilities for graduate and professional education for use in its contractualagreements throughout the Region.
Prior to January 16 of each year, the Commission shall submit to the governors andlegislatures of the compacting states and territories a report of its activities for the precedingcalendar year.
The Commission shall keep accurate books of account, showing in full its receipts anddisbursements, and said books of account shall be open at any reasonable time for inspection bythe governor of any compacting state or territory or his designated representative. TheCommission shall not be subject to the audit in the accounting procedure of any of thecompacting states or territories. The Commission shall provide for an independent annual audit.
It is the duty of the Commission to enter in such contractual agreements with anyinstitutions in the Region offering graduate or professional education and with any of thecompacting states or territories as may be required in the judgment of the Commission to provideadequate services and facilities of graduate and professional education for the citizens of therespective compacting states or territories. The Commission shall first endeavor to provideadequate services and facilities in the fields of dentistry, medicine, public health, and veterinarymedicine, and may undertake similar activities in other professional and graduate fields.
For this purpose the Commission may enter into contractual agreements:
(a) with the governing authority of any educational institution in the Region, or with anycompacting state or territory, to provide such graduate or professional educational services uponterms and conditions to be agreed upon between contracting parties; and
(b) with the governing authority of an educational institution in the Region or with any
compacting state or territory to assist in the placement of graduate or professional students ineducational institutions in the Region providing the desired service and facilities, upon such termsand conditions as the Commission may prescribe.
It is the duty of the Commission to undertake studies of needs for professional andgraduate educational facilities in the Region, the resources for meeting those needs, and thelong-range effects of the Compact on higher education; and from time to time to preparecomprehensive reports on such research for presentation to the Western Governors' Conferenceand to the legislatures of the compacting states and territories. In conducting the studies, theCommission may confer with any national or regional planning body which may be established. The Commission shall draft and recommend to the governors of the various compacting statesand territories, uniform legislation dealing with problems of higher education in the Region.
For the purposes of this Compact, "Region" means the geographical limits of the severalcompacting states and territories.
The operating costs of the Commission shall be apportioned equally among thecompacting states and territories.
This Compact shall become operative and binding immediately as to those states andterritories adopting it whenever five or more of the states or territories of Arizona, California,Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming,Alaska, and Hawaii have duly adopted it. This Compact shall become effective as to anyadditional states or territories adopting thereafter at the time of such adoption.
This Compact may be terminated at any time by consent of a majority of the compactingstates or territories. Consent shall be manifested by passage and signature in the usual manner oflegislation expressing that consent by the Legislature and governor of the terminating state. Anystate or territory may at any time withdraw from this Compact by means of appropriate legislationto that end. The withdrawal is not effective until two years after written notice by the governor ofthe withdrawing state or territory accompanied by a certified copy of the requisite legislativeaction is received by the Commission. The withdrawal shall not relieve the withdrawing state orterritory from its obligations under the compact accruing prior to the effective date of withdrawal. The withdrawing state or territory may rescind its action of withdrawal at any time within thetwo-year period. Thereafter, the withdrawing state or territory may be reinstated by application toand the approval by a majority vote of the Commission.
If any compacting state or territory at any time defaults in the performance of any of itsobligations assumed or imposed in accordance with this Compact, all rights, privileges, andbenefits conferred by this Compact or agreements under the Compact are suspended from theeffective date of that default as fixed by the Commission.
Unless the default is remedied within a period of two years following the effective date ofthe default, this Compact may be terminated with respect to the defaulting state or territory byaffirmative vote of 3/4 of the other member states or territories.
The defaulting state may be reinstated by: (a) performing all acts and obligations uponwhich it has defaulted; and (b) application to and the approval by a majority vote of theCommission.
Enacted by Chapter 167, 1987 General Session