EvCC favors new UW branch

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, April 14, 2007

EVERETT – The question came from a friend in the state capital: “Do you work for Everett Community College or the University of Everett?”

EvCC President David Beyer laughed at the jest, knowing well its origin. He runs a successful and expanding community college at a time when the area’s state lawmakers are pushing for a new four-year university.

It’s only natural for some to consider converting his school; it’s how Boise State University in Idaho and Mesa State College in Colorado were born.

For the record, Beyer is wary of conversion.

He worries that the college would lose a sense of purpose, including its open admissions policy, which helps unlikely students get a foot in the door to higher education.

A more promising possibility, he said, is the University of Washington launching a branch campus in Everett and marrying its programs with those at EvCC.

“The UW doing something here sounds good to us,” he said.

Conversely, talk of a four-year independent university in north Snohomish County makes him nervous.

The proposal calls for a school that would have a “polytechnic” focus of science, engineering and technology.

“It would raise some questions. Why aren’t educators in more support?” Beyer said.

For now, EvCC is watching closely what happens in Olympia as state lawmakers from Snohomish County press for a four-year independent university in the region while another group in the House of Representatives pushes for a campus that would fall under the UW umbrella.

And the question of conversion also remains on the table.

Converting EvCC into a four-year college was considered in a $500,000 study last year of higher education needs in Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties and given low marks compared to starting a new four-year college.

Yet the powerful chairwoman of the state House Appropriations Committee has said privately that the idea at least merits more study.

Rep. Helen Sommers, D-Seattle, has visited the EvCC campus, spoken often with Beyer this legislative session and is willing to help add baccalaureate degree programs to the college.

“Snohomish County really does need more higher education opportunities,” she said.

Legislators from Snohomish and Island counties are united in not wanting EvCC turned into a four-year college because it would mean losing an important option in higher education for residents.

“That’s not acceptable to me,” said state Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island.

When the conversion topic came up two years ago, EvCC staff members Stu Barger and John Olson went to visit the University College of the Fraser Valley in Abbottsford, B.C.

The campus is in a growing suburban community similar to Everett and was supposed to begin as a vocational school in the 1970s. Instead, it became a four-year university with 10,000 students and 1,500 graduates a year.

The pair shared their observations with faculty.

“There were two main camps,” said Barger, EvCC senior assistant to the president.

“You had the people who were seeing the possibilities of how to serve the students after the first two years,” he said. “And there were the people who were afraid we would lose or forget some of the people who have no other options.”

Those include adults who come back to school to learn basic reading and math skills, immigrants trying to learn a new language and laid-off workers looking for another career.

Sen. Steve Hobbs, D-Lake Stevens, attended EvCC and transferred to the University of Washington. He said he could not have gone to the UW without first attending the community college, which was cheaper and closer to home.

“My concern is making sure people in Snohomish County have access to some kind of community college,” he said. “If you turn it into a polytech, you close the door to that.”

Beyer, who was hired to lead EvCC last July, said he has had positive conversations with UW President Mark Emmert about a branch campus.

“He senses we want to work with them and they would work with us,” Beyer said.

Beyer said EvCC could work with the UW even though Emmert would want any branch campus to be able to offer freshman- and sophomore-level classes.

Emmert also said he would want the UW to have a separate campus to establish its identity in the community.

Edmonds Community College could back a program that brings more upper-division degrees to the county, said Susan Kostick, a vice president at the school.

The EdCC Board of Trustees supports building a strong upper-division and graduate-level polytechnic university in north Snohomish County, such as a UW branch campus, if it makes good use of existing resources.

“We have a real good model with Central Washington University on our campus, and we would like to see more of that,” she said.

Central has been part of the EdCC campus since 1975. Today, it awards about 200 bachelor’s degrees each year and serves about 600 students a quarter from the Lynnwood campus.

Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish, is advocating for a UW branch campus that preserves Everett Community College in its current role.

“In a perfect world,” he said, the UW would open a branch for upper-division students next to Everett Community College so it could use existing land and facilities.

EvCC also would be a great feeder of students to the neighboring branch campus.

Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed spending $2 million this year to further study higher education options in the region. The House and the Senate each proposed $1.5 million for the same work. Senators also want to spend $2.5 million on buying land or designing buildings.

While lawmakers push their university agendas, EvCC is trying to expand a regional center where five universities give students a shot at a limited number of bachelor’s and master’s degrees.

EvCC oversees the North Puget Sound University Center, which includes upper-division and graduate-level classes from most of the state’s public universities.

By next fall, the center expects to have junior, senior and graduate-level classes offered by Central, Eastern and Western Washington universities, as well as the UW and Washington State University.

EvCC had 10,368 full- and part-time students fall quarter. The University Center head count was 601 last quarter.

EvCC will begin construction this summer on a $40 million undergraduate center that will house upper-division courses beginning in 2009. The three-story building will cover 80,000 square feet, with half the classes dedicated to upper-division work.

Beyer believes a UW branch in Everett can succeed along with the University Center. As president of Clark College in Vancouver, also a community college, he watched Eastern effectively offer classes alongside a WSU branch campus.

“I really do think they can co-exist,” he said.

Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.