53B-4-101. WICHE compact.
As empowered by law, the governor of Utah has duly entered into a compact the text of
which is as follows:
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,
cooperatively can provide acceptable and efficient educational facilities to meet the needs of the
Region 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 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 cooperation 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. The 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 as
provided by law in the 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. 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. The Commission 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 bylaws 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.
Prior to January 16 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 in the accounting procedure of any of the
compacting states or territories. The Commission shall provide for an independent annual audit.
Article VIII.
It is the duty of the Commission to enter in 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 an educational institution 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 service and facilities, upon such terms
and conditions as the Commission may prescribe.
It is the duty of the Commission to undertake studies of needs for professional and
graduate educational facilities in the Region, the resources for meeting those needs, and the
long-range effects of the Compact on higher education; and from time to time to 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 the 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, "Region" means 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. 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 that consent by the Legislature and governor of the terminating state. Any
state or territory may at any time withdraw from this Compact by means of appropriate legislation
to that end. The withdrawal is not effective until two years after written notice by the governor of
the withdrawing state or territory accompanied by a certified copy of the requisite legislative
action is received by the Commission. The withdrawal shall not relieve the withdrawing state or
territory 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 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 at any time defaults in the performance of any of its
obligations assumed or imposed in accordance with this Compact, all rights, privileges, and
benefits conferred by this Compact or agreements under the Compact are suspended from the
effective date of that default as fixed by the Commission.
Unless the default is remedied within a period of two years following the effective date of
the default, this Compact may be terminated with respect to the defaulting state or territory by
affirmative vote of 3/4 of the other member states or territories.
The defaulting state may be reinstated by: (a) performing all acts and obligations upon
which it has defaulted; and (b) application to and the approval by a majority vote of the
Commission.
Enacted by Chapter 167, 1987 General Session
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Last revised: Wednesday, July 23, 2008