To succeed, new branch campus must grow quickly, panel says
Published 11:13 pm Monday, November 19, 2007
With two branch campuses in place, the University of Washington knows a misstep the state should avoid taking if it opens a third in Snohomish County: growing too slowly.
Legislators should pick a permanent site, then commit to spending the money needed to construct buildings, hire faculty and enroll students, a panel of UW academics has recommended.
Otherwise, the new university could find it hard to fill classrooms in the beginning and establish a lasting reputation that meets the public’s expectations — as has been the experience of UW campuses in Bothell and Tacoma.
“The lesson from all of the branch campuses is it is very, very challenging to start these campuses in a slow, incremental fashion,” UW President Mark Emmert said.
He’s embracing those recommendations issued last week by the panel headed by former UW President Lee Huntsman.
That report sets out principles and themes to guide the construction of this new university. It points out that one key lesson learned with the creation of Tacoma and Bothell in 1990 was the state trying to do too much all at once, leaving each college without a clear purpose.
It stated: The “metaphor for the way in which the new campuses were designed and built is white-water rafting while simultaneously building and designing the raft, mapping the river and hiring new and inexperienced rafters.”
Alan Wood, a UW-Bothell professor of history, was a panel member who worked on the principles. He is also a founding faculty member at Bothell.
“It’s been very, very difficult to start small and grow very, very slowly,” he said.
Bothell spent its first 10 years in temporary quarters and is still awaiting construction of an I-405 offramp to the school that will allow it to enroll more than 3,000 students.
“What is in the best interest of the students is opportunity and choices. The sooner we get them on the table, the better,” he said. “We want to start out doing it right this time.”
A serious push is under way to launch a four-year university to serve students from Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties, as well as from throughout the state.
A Seattle consultant on Nov. 15 ranked Everett Station ahead of locations in Marysville, Lake Stevens and a second property in Everett as the site best suited for the permanent campus.
Huntsman’s panel also put out its preliminary plan for running the college Thursday.
It envisions starting up in fall 2008 with 60 students attending nursing and liberal arts classes at an interim location. Operational costs are estimated at $1.8 million.
Degree programs in science, technology, engineering and math — expected to be the major focus of the university — would get under way in earnest in 2015, when enrollment is predicted to hit 1,519 students.
Progressing to that point is heavily contingent on the level of state spending.
The consultant, NBBJ, estimates preparing any of the sites for use will require at least $50 million and academic buildings will cost at least $380 million; plus, there are other needs, such as parking and dormitories.
UW-Bothell Chancellor Kenyon Chan backed the recommendations and cautioned against overreacting to the numbers.
“We need to take a deep breath and decide on a long-range plan and how we are going to commit to it,” Chan said. “It would be a mistake to start the process and not finish it.
“If the people of Everett and north Snohomish County are going to be well-served they ought to be served by a university well-formed.”
