WSU’s College Of Ag Preparing For Potential Budget Cuts In '28

The budget continues to be tight at Washington State University, and for the College of Agricultural, Human and Natural Resource Sciences, or CAHNRS, it could get even tighter. Cashup Davis Family Endowed Dean Raj Khosla, recently marked one year as the head of CAHNRS, and noted one of the biggest issues facing the College continues to be the budget; an issue he pointed out land grants nationwide are addressing.

Khosla said this past year was the 6th in a row that CAHNRS faced a budget shortage head on. He noted for Fiscal Year 2027, they were asked to reduce the budget by 1%, which was better than the 3%-5% College officials had been anticipating.

However, Khosla says CAHNRS isn’t out of the woods.

“Along with the memo that came letting us know how much is the budget cut for FY27," Khosla said. "Given the state resources and how the budget, what we know for the FY28 today, we have been asked to be preparing ourselves for 1%, 3%, 5%, and 10% budget cut scenarios for Fiscal Year 28. Now this is unprecedented because the fiscal year had not even started and we have been asked to be thinking about that ahead of time.”

When it comes to support at the state level, Khosla said CAHNRS is very well supported.

“It would be nice when the fiscal health of the state improves so that we continue to grow," said Khosla. "We don't have to be thinking about, hey, will it be 1% or 3% or 5%? That would be a good state to happen. But as I look at some of my other land grant institutions where I've heard 12% budget cut or even higher, and when we hear about 1%, we feel pretty good about that.”

Khosla pointed out the CAHNRS accounts for 35% of the entire research portfolio at WSU.