[§304A-3202]  Terms and provisions of
compact.  The terms and provisions of the Compact referred to in section
[304A-3201] are as follows:



WESTERN
REGIONAL EDUCATION COMPACT



The contracting states do hereby agree 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 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, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming, and the Territory do hereby covenant and agree as follows:



ARTICLE II



Each of the compacting states and the Territory
of Hawaii pledges to each of the other compacting states and territory faithful
cooperation in carrying out all the purposes of this compact.



ARTICLE III



The compacting states and territory 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 the Territory of Hawaii.



One or more commissioners from a majority of
the compacting states and territory 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 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 the Territory of Hawaii 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 territory 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 the governor's designated representative. 
The commission shall not be subject to the audit and accounting procedure of
any of the compacting states or territory.  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 institution in the region offering
graduate or professional education and with any of the compacting states or
territory 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 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 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 to prepare
comprehensive reports on such research for presentation to the Western
Governors' Conference and to the legislatures of the compacting states and territory. 
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 territory,
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 the Territory of Hawaii.



ARTICLE IX



The operating costs of the commission shall be
apportioned equally among the compacting states and the Territory of Hawaii.



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 of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Montana,
Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the Territory of
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 and territory.  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. [L 2006, c 75, pt of §2]