MILL CREEK – As the debate over what kind of college Snohomish County needs gathers speed in Olympia, cities are being asked to choose sides.
Marysville; Monroe; Lake Stevens; and several other cities, school districts and chambers of commerce have come out with resolutions in favor of a four-year independent polytechnic college.
Mill Creek, like the other cities, was asked by state Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, to adopt a resolution in favor of a polytechnic college to serve Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties.
Earlier this week, the council brought Hobbs’ representative, Kevin Hulten, to speak to the council at a study session.
Unlike the other cities, the Mill Creek council also invited Steven Olswang, interim chancellor at the University of Washington’s Bothell campus, to speak at the study session.
After listening to presentations from Olswang and Hobbs’ representative, the council said it would consider voting on a resolution – in favor of a branch campus.
“It just appeared there was a whole lot more fiscal feasibility to it than starting something from scratch,” Councilwoman Mary Kay Voss said.
The council hasn’t scheduled a time to vote on the resolution, Voss said.
At the study session, Olswang told council members that a branch campus would prepare students for engineering and high-tech jobs in the area, as well as offer more general classes.
A new branch campus could work with the Bothell campus and the main campus in Seattle to serve students, Olswang said.
“The fundamental issues, we don’t disagree on,” Olswang said. “There’s a need, a demand, and we need to figure out how to meet that demand.”
Hulten, the Hobbs legislative assistant, told the City Council that a group of senators who favor an independent university want an institution that stands on its own.
“(The senators) feel a branch campus is always going to be beholden to Seattle,” Hulten said.
An independent campus would open with dorms already built, and with students ready to fill new student-life programs, Hulten said.
Both said each plan would spur economic growth in the area.
Reporter Scott Pesznecker: 425-339-3436 or spesznecker@heraldnet.com.
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