OLYMPIA — Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, announced plans to introduce legislation that would create a task force to review how Western Washington University decided to terminate its football program and to make recommendations on how to reinstate the program prior to the 2009 season.

“I’m concerned that the decision to close Western’s 105-year-old football program was made behind closed doors,” Jacobsen said. “Western’s fans deserve to know how and why this decision was made.”

Jacobsen also said he feared that ending the program would have disastrous effects on the local economy and the university’s funding during a time of historic economic insecurity.

“Western’s football program has been an economic driver throughout our state, and I’ve been told that donors are canceling their contributions and endowment pledges because of this decision,” Jacobsen said. “We need to make sure that decisions being made as we face this economic uncertainty are not short-sighted and make our economic situation worse.”