Statement from Governor Gregoire on WSU President Lane Rawlins' Retirement

For Immediate Release: July 28, 2006

�I regret that Washington State University President Lane Rawlins will retire next June. As the first faculty member to become president, he has been a Cougar for many years and has served the students and the state well.

�Since I have been Governor, Lane and I have worked together closely to respond to a shortage of nurses by improving WSU Spokane�s College of Nursing facilities. We expanded four-year degree programs to the WSU Tri-Cities and Vancouver campuses and I recently attended the groundbreaking for Tri-Cities new biosciences building.

�Lane raised the stature of WSU as a premier research institution, a designation affirmed by the Carnegie Foundation when they named the school one of 96 top-tier research institutions in the country. Washington is now the proud home to two top-caliber research schools.

�Washington�s citizens are indebted to him for all he has done for education in the state. I wish him all the best as he moves into this new period of well-deserved retirement.�

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