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Higher-ed politics, like a livestock auction, centers on shouted bids and broad-shoulder maneuvering. Two generations ago, it was more a silent exchange of notes across a table, often shepherded by Charles Odegaard, the laconic UW president who served from 1958 until 1973 and elevated the university to its acclaimed rank. That was the Great Society era of federal largesse, when dinero tsunamied into Washington's four-year universities, and quality of education was inversely proportional to tuition. Year after year in Olympia, higher ed was cast as a core service, as integral to the state's economic and social fabric as transportation and human services.