Valley Falls ? The Kansas Board of Regents on Wednesday reopened discussions on whether Washburn University should be admitted as the seventh state university in Kansas.

“It makes zero sense to me not to have Washburn in the state system,” said Regent Lew Ferguson, of Topeka. “It makes no sense to give them all this state money and not have them be part of the system.”

The issue was raised this time by Regent Deryl Wynn, of Kansas City, Kan., at the regents’ annual retreat at The Barn Bed & Breakfast Inn.

Regents were discussing progress made on recommendations made in a 2001 consultant’s report on the state’s higher-education system.

That report, by the Northwest Research Education Center, recommended that Washburn be part of the state university system. Wynn said he didn’t think that would ever happen and wanted regents to drop it as a recommendation they’re considering.

“I think we need to tell them that the Board of Regents isn’t planning to bring them into the state system,” Wynn said. “It’s not going to happen, and it’s not worth the bloodshed.”

But Ferguson and newly appointed Regent Frank Gaines, of Hamilton, said they didn’t want to drop Washburn’s possible incorporation from the regents’ radar screen.

“There’s a reason Washburn is the only municipal university in the nation, and that’s because every other state and every other city thought it was stupid,” Ferguson said.

Washburn, in Topeka, is considered a municipal university and is governed by its own Board of Regents.

Washburn receives about $19 million of its $65 million budget from sales taxes in Shawnee County. The state provides about $11 million a year. The rest comes from tuition, private money and grants.

The issue of bringing Washburn into the state system has been largely dormant since 1999, when the state reorganized its higher education-system. The bill responsible for that reorganization — Senate Bill 345 — originally included making Washburn a state university, but that provision was later removed.

Washburn’s “sweetheart deal”

The Kansas Board of Regents governs the six state universities and has “coordination” responsibilities for community colleges, technical schools and colleges and Washburn. The board helps in areas of overlap between the universities and the other institutions, such as in agreements for getting credits for student transfers among the institutions.

Gaines said Washburn benefited from a “sweetheart deal” that let it have state funds without the same level of accountability.

“We can’t walk away from Washburn,” Gaines said. “We have responsibility for it. … The problem with Washburn is a real problem. I was in the Legislature 26 years, and we dealt with it 26 years.”

But Regent Bill Docking, of Arkansas City, said he thought leaving the incorporation of Washburn into the state system as a goal for the Board of Regents sent the wrong message.

“I run into people all the time who think the Board of Regents has a covert plan to bring Washburn into the state system,” Docking said. He said no such plan existed.

Autonomy preferred

Jerry Farley, Washburn’s president, said he didn’t want Washburn to be considered a full-fledged state university, and he wasn’t concerned that the regents would seek that without Washburn’s approval.

“I don’t have any fear of that,” Farley said.

Farley said he didn’t think the state could come up with money to replace the $19 million in sales tax revenue Shawnee County provides to Washburn. He said he was comfortable with the regents’ current oversight over the university.

“We like the autonomy compared to being a state agency,” Farley said. “The board feels compelled to look at what benefits the whole state and not play favorites. The policies that are good for one are not always good for all.”