OLYMPIA — To address the issue of the budget deficit state universities would face after Gov. Locke’s proposed 5 percent cuts, the Legislature considered three bills in the Senate Higher Education Committee Monday morning.

Among the three bills, SB 6707, which proposes handing control of tuition over to the governing boards, received most attention from the student and university representatives.

“I did not at this point sense the sentiment among the members of the committee to have Gov. Locke’s proposal reenacted,” said Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle.

While Kohl-Welles, the chair of the Senate Higher Education Committee, is doubtful the bill would receive “do pass” recommendation, the proposed pieces of legislation cause serious concerns among various student group organizations.

In addition to granting the governing boards unlimited control over tuition-setting, SB 6707 would require the university administration guarantee its undergrads graduate in four years. Under the bill, “institutional control” will take effect starting in 2003 academic year.

“We have to allow the regents more flexibility,” said Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-North Seattle, the prime sponsor of the bill. Jacobsen stressed that all but four states in the country allow universities’ governing boards to set the tuition rates, and that the system is successful as long as the Legislature and the boards are conducting a “dynamic dialogue.”

Under existing law, the Legislature sets the limit for the tuition increases, while the Board of Regents decides the specific dollar amounts within these brackets. For this academic year, the lawmakers allowed a maximum of 6.7 percent increase in tuition, which raised the amount of tuition cost for an average UW undergrad to $3,983.

Another bill, SB 6736, proposed by Sen. Paull Shin, D-Edmonds, follows this model of reserving the tuition-setting authority with the Legislature. The bill would allow the boards to raise tuition up to 9.2 percent increase next year. This option is more likely to be considered by lawmakers this year, said Kohl-Welles.

While a third bill received little discussion, its proposed sliding-scale alternative was called “logical, yet because the sliding scale is difficult to administer, impractical.” The formula driven SB 6739 leaves the tuition setting authority with Legislature, but redefines the tuition rates with regard to the student’s family income.

“No matter what your income is, your tuition is subsidized,” said Sen. Jim Horn, R-Mercer Island, the prime sponsor of the bill. “My concern has been with the middle income group — which gets the squeeze when the tuition is raised.”

Currently, about 55 percent of the actual tuition cost is paid by the state. Horn wants to make students from high-income families pay 100 percent of the costs, while the state would continue to subsidize the tuition for students from lower- and middle-income families according to the scale.

The UW administration, not eagerly anticipating the 5 percent cut, which would leave the University budget short $18,056,000, supports SB 6707. Dick Thompson, the UW’s director of legislative relations, questioned how the University could be expected to retain the quality of its academic and research programs without sufficient funding.

However, students see the bill promoting “institutional control,” as a sure sign of uncontrollable increases in tuition.

“Institutional control is a bad idea,” said Danica You, ASUW president. You said students are willing to share the burden of tuition increases, dictated by the uncertain times, but not at the expense of tuition control.

There is no doubt the administration would increase the tuition once it receives full power over setting the tuition, said several activists from the Affordable Tuition Now! (ATN!), a UW student organization. ATN! prefers such control remain in the hands of those who are publicly elected and “care about the voice of students.”

“We are not asking for no increase in tuition,” said Nathan Gorton, ATN! member. “We are asking for a reasonable increase in tuition.”