Real work is on for UW branch

Published 11:03 pm Tuesday, June 19, 2007

EVERETT – Two of the biggest questions facing a new University of Washington branch campus are where it will go and what will be taught.

On Tuesday, the state named the experts who will help answer those questions.

The state awarded a $1 million contract to a firm to find three sites – and recommend one – for a permanent campus in Snohomish, Island or Skagit county.

At the same time, a high-powered panel of 16 academics and executives led by UW President Emeritus Lee Huntsman was tapped to develop a potential curriculum.

Their separate recommendations are due by Nov. 15, just five months away.

“I don’t have any preconceived notion about where this campus should be, but I want to inform this site-selection process by what this campus is going to be for students,” Huntsman said.

This is not a “decision-making group,” Huntsman stressed. “Our job is to sketch as much as we can.”

They will have to draw fast. The law signed by Gov. Chris Gregoire envisions 250 upper division students taking classes starting September 2008.

Huntsman described a focus of instruction in science, technology, engineering and math that would serve students in the region and the state.

Huntsman spoke of offering classes connecting students with private businesses and community groups. Faculty from the main UW campus will be needed to teach when the campus opens, he said.

One thing Huntsman doesn’t know is what the new UW branch campus will be named; he was informally calling it UW North.

Nor is it known when freshmen and sophomores will attend the college. UW branch campuses in Bothell and Tacoma, both of which opened in 1990, enrolled their first lower division students last year.

“It’s not 15 years, and it’s not 15 months,” said Deb Merle, Gregoire’s higher education adviser.

On the search for a site, the state awarded the contract to Seattle consultant NBBJ.

This is the same firm involved in the $500,000 analysis completed last year that concluded a four-year university is needed to serve the increasing demand in the region.

The consultant will suggest a temporary location for the first day of classes.

Its primary work will be to narrow the search to three potential sites and evaluate each in terms of land and building costs and environmental concerns.

There is no dearth of suggestions.

The cities of Everett and Stanwood are openly competing to be home to a campus and have offered up possible properties.

Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon provided an overview of nearly a dozen potential locations countywide and, in the past, the Tulalip Tribes suggested they might have available land.

Lawmakers and Gregoire earmarked $2.5 million for buying land.

Merle acknowledged the political jockeying under way and said the selection process will be “relentlessly transparent” to the public.

As communities tussle over the site, higher education institutions seem to be embracing the birth of a new college.

Huntsman said he has been encouraged by the tone of discussions with presidents from area community colleges who were initially leery of the University of Washington bringing a four-year presence to their back yards.

“They have a lot to teach us,” he said.

Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.