The governor of the state of Colorado, for and in
behalf of the state of Colorado, is hereby authorized to enter into compacts for
western regional cooperation in higher education with the states of Alaska, Arizona,
California, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington,
and Wyoming or any one or more of said states. Under such compacts, the following
covenants may be agreed to:
ARTICLE I
WHEREAS, the future of this Nation and of the Western States is dependent
upon the quality of the education of its youth; and
WHEREAS, many of the Western States individually do not have sufficient
numbers of potential students to warrant the establishment and maintenance
within their borders of adequate facilities in all of the essential fields of technical,
professional, and graduate training, nor do all of the States have the financial
ability to furnish within their borders institutions capable of providing acceptable
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, co-operatively can provide acceptable and efficient educational
facilities to meet the needs of the Region and of the students thereof;
NOW, THEREFORE, The States of Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho,
Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and the
Territories of Alaska and Hawaii do hereby covenant and agree as follows:
ARTICLE II
Each of the compacting states and territories pledges to each of the other
compacting states and territories faithful co-operation in carrying out all the
purposes of this Compact.
ARTICLE III
The compacting states and territories hereby create the Western Interstate
Commission for Higher Education, hereinafter called the Commission. Said
Commission shall be a body corporate of each compacting state and territory and
an agency thereof. The Commission shall have all the powers and duties set forth
herein, including the power to sue and be sued, and such additional powers as may
be conferred upon it by subsequent action of the respective legislatures of the
compacting states and territories.
ARTICLE IV
The Commission shall consist of three resident members from each
compacting state or territory. At all times one Commissioner from each compacting
state or territory shall be an educator engaged in the field of higher education in
the state or territory from which he is appointed.
The Commissioners from each state and territory shall be appointed by the
Governor thereof as provided by law in such state or territory. Any Commissioner
may be removed or suspended from office 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, provided however that
the first three Commissioners shall be appointed as follows: one for two years, one
for three years, and one for four years. Each Commissioner shall hold office until 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 unexpired term.
ARTICLE V
Any business transacted at any meeting of the Commission must be by
affirmative vote of a majority of the whole number of compacting states and
territories.
One or more Commissioners from a majority of the compacting states and
territories shall constitute a quorum for the transaction of business.
Each compacting state and territory represented at any meeting of the
Commission is entitled to one vote.
ARTICLE VI
The Commission shall elect from its number a chairman and a vice chairman,
and may appoint, and at its pleasure dismiss or remove, such officers, agents, and
employees as may be required to carry out the purpose of this Compact; and shall
fix and determine their duties, qualifications and compensation, having due regard
for the importance of the responsibilities involved.
The Commissioners shall serve without compensation, but shall be
reimbursed for their actual and necessary expenses from the funds of the
Commission.
ARTICLE VII
The Commission shall adopt a seal and by-laws and shall adopt and
promulgate rules and regulations for its management and control.
The Commission may elect such committees as it deems necessary for the
carrying out of its functions.
The Commission shall establish and maintain an office within one of the
compacting states for the transaction of its business and may meet at any time, but
in any event must meet at least once a year. The Chairman may call such additional
meetings and upon the request of a majority of the Commissioners of three or more
compacting states or territories shall call additional meetings.
The Commission shall submit a budget to the Governor of each compacting
state and territory at such time and for such period as may be required.
The Commission shall, after negotiations with interested institutions,
determine the cost of providing the facilities for graduate and professional
education for use in its contractual agreements throughout the Region.
On or before the fifteenth day of January of each year, the Commission shall
submit to the Governors and Legislatures of the compacting states and territories a
report of its activities for the preceding calendar year.
The Commission shall keep accurate books of account, showing in full its
receipts and disbursements, and said books of account shall be open at any
reasonable time for inspection by the Governor of any compacting state or territory
or his designated representative. The Commission shall not be subject to the audit
and accounting procedure of any of the compacting states or territories. The
Commission shall provide for an independent annual audit.
ARTICLE VIII
It shall be the duty of the Commission to enter into such contractual
agreements with any institutions in the Region offering graduate or professional
education and with any of the compacting states or territories as may be required in
the judgment of the Commission to provide adequate services and facilities of
graduate and professional education for the citizens of the respective compacting
states or territories. The Commission shall first endeavor to provide adequate
services and facilities in the fields of dentistry, medicine, public health, and
veterinary medicine, 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 any compacting state or territory, to provide such graduate or professional
educational services upon terms and conditions to be agreed upon between
contracting parties, and
(b) With the governing authority of any educational institutions in the Region
or with any compacting state or territory to assist in the placement of graduate or
professional students in educational institutions in the Region providing the desired
services and facilities, upon such terms and conditions as the Commission may
prescribe.
It shall be the duty of the Commission to undertake studies of needs for
professional and graduate educational facilities in the Region, the resources for
meeting such needs, and the long-range effects of the Compact on higher
education; and from time to time prepare comprehensive reports on such research
for presentation to the Western Governors' Conference and to the legislatures of
the compacting states and territories. In conducting such studies, the Commission
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 states and territories, uniform legislation dealing with problems of
higher education in the Region.
For the purposes of this Compact the word Region shall be construed to
mean the geographical limits of the several compacting states and territories.
ARTICLE IX
The operating costs of the Commission shall be apportioned equally among
the compacting states and territories.
ARTICLE X
This Compact shall become operative and binding immediately as to those
states and territories 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 prior to July 1,
1953. This Compact shall become effective as to any additional states or territories
adopting thereafter at the time of such adoption.
ARTICLE XI
This Compact may be terminated at any time by consent of a majority of the
compacting states or territories. Consent shall be manifested by passage and
signature in the usual manner of legislation expressing such consent by the
legislature and Governor of such terminating state. Any state or territory may at
any time withdraw from this Compact by means of appropriate legislation to that
end. Such withdrawal shall not become effective until two years after written
notice thereof by the Governor of the withdrawing state or territory accompanied
by a certified copy of the requisite legislative action is received by the Commission.
Such withdrawal shall not relieve the withdrawing state or territory from its
obligations hereunder accruing prior to the effective date of withdrawal. The
withdrawing state or territory may rescind its action of withdrawal at any time
within the two year period. Thereafter, the withdrawing state or territory may be
reinstated by application to and the approval by a majority vote of the Commission.
ARTICLE XII
If any compacting state or territory shall at any time default in the
performance of any of its obligations assumed or imposed in accordance with the
provisions of this Compact, all rights, privileges and benefits conferred by this
Compact or agreements hereunder, shall be suspended from the effective date of
such default as fixed by the Commission.
Unless such default shall be remedied within a period of two years following
the effective date of such default, this Compact may be terminated with respect to
such defaulting state or territory by affirmative vote of three-fourths of the other
member states or territories.
Any such defaulting state may be reinstated by: (a) performing all Acts and
obligations upon which it has heretofore defaulted, and (b) application to and the
approval by a majority vote of the Commission.