County’s hope for a university closer to reality

Published 9:00 pm Sunday, March 12, 2006

OLYMPIA – Propelled by Snohomish County lawmakers, the Legislature took its first significant steps toward building a four-year university in the region this session.

These legislators have been spouting metaphors to describe what they’ve accomplished. It’s been about planting the seeds, sowing the field or nourishing the branch that will grow into a great oak of a university, they say.

It’s also been about cold, hard cash.

Lawmakers passed budgets Wednesday allocating millions of dollars for the most important pieces of a university – land and students.

Everett Community College will receive funding for 250 full-time students in upper-division and graduate courses offered through the University Center, a consortium run by the college. It is now based at Everett Station.

The state is also providing $3.8 million to EvCC to build classrooms on campus for the University Center. The first class in its new home will be conducted in 2009.

Legislators say moving the University Center is only the first step in their plan to build a four-year college in Snohomish County.

“Locals know that we need the additional higher-education slots and that Snohomish and Skagit counties are growing by leaps and bounds,” said Sen. Jean Berkey, D-Everett. “Businesses are not able to recruit college grads from the area.”

Closer to home

Berkey knows what it’s like to be a student without a four-year university in the region.

During the early 1970s, the Everett native spent two years earning an associate’s degree at Everett Community College. She wanted to go on to a university while living at home, but because she lived in Everett, her options were limited.

There was Western Washington University in Bellingham, but it was an hour’s drive north. Or there was the University of Washington in Seattle, about half that far to the south.

Berkey chose the UW, but it would have been easier if there had been a four-year college closer to Everett, she said.

Students living in Snohomish County still face a tough commute to access higher education, and lawmakers believe it is the reason fewer high school graduates in the county go on to earn four-year degrees.

The problem won’t go away, either. Within 20 years there will be more than 4,000 students in Snohomish County whose higher-education needs are not being met, said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.

In 2005, Haugen sponsored a bill to create North Snohomish State College. The school would have been the first new university in Washington since The Evergreen State College opened its doors in Olympia in 1971.

Haugen’s bill died, but legislators responded by commissioning a two-year, $500,000 study to assess the higher-education needs of Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties.

Phase one of the study is done; the full report is due in December.

In the meantime, the University Center’s move to EvCC has raised questions about whether that school could mushroom into the state’s next four-year college.

The answer is probably not, lawmakers said.

The study’s initial findings show there is as much need for another community college in the county as there is for a four-year institution, Haugen said. Expanding EvCC to house both is not the answer.

“There are huge needs for community college space,” she said. “To put them together doesn’t make sense.”

Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, wants a new four-year school next to EvCC.

“They exist very well next to each other in some places,” he said dryly, referring to UW Bothell and Cascadia Community College.

Dunshee said he thinks the study isn’t necessary to show that the county is aching for a four-year college. He’d like to see less talk and more allocation of funds.

“I don’t think we need to continue (the study),” he said. “It’s given us enough information to move forward right now.”

Designing a college

What kind of college will be built has not been decided. Some want a four-year school, while others want it to cater to the needs of local technology companies.

Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett, is pushing for a college computer science-oriented curriculum. Sells sponsored legislation, which is headed to the governor, that would establish technology as a priority in Washington’s colleges.

One quarter of the state’s biotechnology industry is in Snohomish County, Sells said. Employers want to hire locally, but are finding that workers with the right educational background are hard to come by, he said.

A university geared toward technology and the sciences will be necessary if the state wants to compete globally in those fields, Sells said.

China generates 600,000 engineering graduates each year. India produces 300,000. By comparison, the U.S. turns out only 70,000.

“It’s just as big a problem in Spokane as in Snohomish County,” Sells said. “The health and growth of our community is dependent on people that can take those jobs.”

Officials have not yet decided whether the new college will be independent, such as Evergreen, or linked with the UW or Washington State University. All eyes are now trained on the UW.

Norm Arkans, a university spokesman, said the UW was interested in a partnership with EvCC for the University Center.

“It’s a start toward baccalaureate education in Everett,” he said. “If they want us to be that provider, we’re happy to do that.”

Arkans was hesitant to comment on the possibility of a new four-year college becoming UW Everett.

Dunshee estimated a new school would cost approximately $500 million. No matter how great the need, it’s not going to happen all at once.

Nevertheless, the seed has been planted.

“This is where it started,” Dunshee said.

Herald writer Blythe Lawrence: 360-352-8623.