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Recently announced tuition hikes of 16 percent at the University of Washington and Washington State University must, for now, be viewed as a necessary evil.Given the economy of recent years, state universities -- along with all state-supported entities -- have been in the firing line generated by dire revenue shortcomings. Since 2008, lawmakers have slashed higher-education budgets by more than half, a painful-yet-necessary economic reality created in part by legal restraints that prevent cuts in other facets of the budget.