It’s finally happening — Snohomish County, one of the biggest in the nation not to have a four-year university, will become home to WSU-Everett.

This is a great opportunity for the people and businesses not only of Everett, but of Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties.

The potential i

s there and the opportunities are limitless. Nursing, agriculture, aerospace, computers, bio-medical, environment, marine studies and education were just some of the needs for higher education in our areas.

But the question isn’t, “What can WSU do for us?” Right now, the real question is, “What can we do for WSU-Everett?”

We had a hell of a fight to get to where we are.

To move forward, we need to care for this idea that’s now becoming a reality. This is a baby university, a fledgling that needs care and feeding and love before it can truly take flight and become an educational and economic force for our county.

And it’s truly a partnership, not only between Washington State University and Everett Community College, but with other universities and everyone in the area.

Making this work means building an even stronger partnership with the community, local schools and businesses.

The first step recently happened, with a great ” introduction day” meeting hosted by Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson and WSU President Elson Floyd. These two need to be complimented again and again for their work. They worked hard with lawmakers from this area to make this decades-long dream happen.

That introductory meeting brought enough deans of schools here to field a baseball team, along with a full house of community members and WSU leaders. There was a lot of great discussion about how to make this work for our students, businesses and community.

We know it can work. The model we’re using is the Riverpoint campus in Spokane, which is also a partnership that includes other universities and is managed by WSU.

While the Everett campus’ governance and offerings will follow Riverpoint’s design, there is one critical element that we in the community need to build ourselves, again looking to Spokane as the model. They use an organization that comes from the bottom up, from the community, and that gives Riverpoint strength when it comes to the Legislature for support.

It is not uncommon to see 100 members of that community in a meeting with legislators when they come to Olympia. They’ve worked out their priorities, have supportive documents, and know which legislators to talk with in order to get the job done.

If you’ve seen photos of the Riverpoint campus, or visited it, you can see how effective that community partnership has been in building a strong organization that gives people college degrees and local businesses the high-skilled workers they need.

We need to build a similar organization in our county and area. WSU-Everett will not get a dime for all the great programs spoken of at the introduction meeting without approval from lawmakers. WSU-Everett will not get a single brick for a building without funding approved by the House and Senate.

It is not enough to say, “Oh, you legislators should take care of that.” Lawmakers just cut $4.5 billion from the state budget. Every dollar is precious. You have to fight for it. Claiming that is our turn, or that we deserve our share, won’t cut it. Not when other communities are organized to speak with one voice while making convincing arguments.

Legislators will come and go. We need an organization that will continue on regardless of who is in the Legislature. So, when someone calls you to step up and help, step up for WSU-Everett so we can build something that will help not only the students of today, but their kids and grandkids.

Let’s build something great together.

Rep. Hans Dunshee (D-Snohomish) is chairman of the House Capital Budget Committee, which is responsible for the state’s construction budget.