A state advisory board will recommend letting two university branch campuses begin accepting freshmen, but the University of Washington at Bothell will have to make another pitch at another time.
Expanding branch campus enrollment is one strategy the state is considering to accommodate growing numbers of college-bound students.
The state Higher Education Coordinating Board voted 7-2 Thursday to allow Washington State University at Vancouver to begin accepting freshmen by 2006, and the University of Washington at Tacoma by 2007.
Its recommendations will be forwarded to the Legislature.
In a letter to the board, UW President Mark Emmert argued for opening the door to freshmen at UW Bothell.
“Data indicate there are large numbers of prospective students in King and Snohomish counties who will not attend a community college and will leave the state if they cannot be admitted as freshmen,” Emmert said. “Therefore, in order to serve students, we believe lower-division expectations for UW Bothell should be similar to those of UW Tacoma and WSU Vancouver.”
The state’s four branch campuses are limited by law to offering only upper-division and graduate-level classes, primarily serving transfer students who have completed their freshman and sophomore courses elsewhere.
The UW Bothell and WSU Tri-Cities also hoped to begin offering four-year undergraduate degree programs. The campuses did succeed in getting language inserted in the board’s recommendation that the proposal warrants further study, and they plan to return within the year with more information.
UW Bothell will try to answer board concerns and get the go-ahead to open at about the same time as the other branch campuses, said Kathleen Drew, director of community and government affairs at UW Bothell.
A stumbling block has been that it shares a campus with Cascadia Community College.
Drew said the two institutions have reached agreements on letting UW freshmen in, along with Cascadia freshmen.
“We and Cascadia addressed the issues of our co-location in great detail, but it’s not as well understood by the larger higher-education community,” Drew said.
The board recommendation would allow the branch universities to offer some freshmen and sophomore courses to juniors and seniors if it is applied toward their majors.
As part of a long-range plan, the UW Bothell, with 1,300 students, hopes to expand to as many as 6,000 students by 2020.
Reporter Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446 or stevick@heraldnet.com.
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