3 ideas for how to get a university in Snohomish County

Published 11:18 pm Saturday, January 24, 2009

It took 221 years to elect a black man as president.

It may take as long to launch a four-year university in Snohomish County.

Well-meaning legislators continue to be united in their pursuit of a college and divided on which path to follow to make it happen.

Last year legislators split into camps and fought to a draw on whether the flag of a University of Washington branch campus should fly in Everett or Marysville.

This year, it’s even more basic They don’t want to lose the flagpole altogether.

You might not guess that by the situation today. Two bills with very different approaches are awaiting hearings. A third piece of legislation may get added this week.

Legislators also are chatting, in increasingly louder voices, about associating a branch campus with Washington State University rather than the UW.

Here’s the situation as of today.

Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, doesn’t want a branch campus at all.

He introduced Senate Bill 5106 to create a four-year independent polytechnic university. It gives Snohomish County’s elected leaders and residents — not the state — the power to build and operate it.

Under this bill, the County Council could either raise the sales tax or ask voters to do so and use the money to finance construction and operations. Once the buildings are built, students enrolled and all bonds paid off, the state could assume control.

County Executive Aaron Reardon likes the concept, but the County Council is not embracing the bill, choosing to be officially neutral.

Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett, introduced House Bill 1467 as a means of ensuring the next branch campus built in the state will be the University of Washington Snohomish County.

He’s taken the original law that created branch campuses and added wording to give the county its toehold and the college its academic direction.

This week, Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, should be dropping her bill into the hopper.

It will be similar to Sells’ bill in many respects but one — it will not mention UW. Instead it directs a future campus be affiliated with a research university, an intended invitation to the Cougars.

With three very different positions at this point, lawmakers will be severely tested to avoid seeing another opportunity slip through the community’s grasp.

In the 1960s, Arlington lost out to Olympia for The Evergreen State College and, in the 1980s, Everett lost out to Bothell for the UW branch campus.

Circumstances in 2009 make preserving the rudiment of the college dream appear possible.

First, a recession can do wonders for providing lawmakers needed clarity and focus. Forget buying land, building classrooms, hiring faculty and enrolling students because there’s no cash.

Second, sheer exhaustion of the process is loosening some lawmakers’ footing from entrenched positions.

They are saying, “Let’s get something,” which will sound good to residents who have wanted them to “get it done” for some time.

Political reporter Jerry Cornfield’s blog, The Petri Dish, is at cmg-northwest2.go-vip.net/heraldnet.