In the 60-day legislative session that opens Monday in Olympia, the top priority for local lawmakers must be to bring a University of Washington campus to Snohomish County. Enormous strides toward that goal were made last session, but now each step becomes more weighty and, potentially, more politically challenging.
Chief among those challenges is deciding where to build the new campus, which will address current and future needs for students and the state economy by focusing on science, technology, engineering and math. The “educational signature” of the new UW campus, envisioned in a preliminary academic plan, will be real-world interactions for students with business and civic organizations within the community.
That, among other compelling reasons, is why the new campus should be located in Everett, at the site near Everett Station recommended in a consultant’s study. We urge lawmakers to join those who already have expressed support for the Everett site. We also urge county Executive Aaron Reardon and the County Council, who have kept a relatively low profile since the consultant’s study was issued in November, to get behind it.
Everett’s proximity to major employers, and thus to a wide range of “experiential learning” opportunities, is just one important point in its favor. Everett Station offers an obvious transportation advantage, as does the nearby confluence of major highways. Everett is also closer to more of the area’s population.
The site’s relatively small footprint (27 acres at present) could easily grow over time to accommodate more classrooms and student housing, and the city could partner with the university to build and share athletic fields nearby.
The other leading contender, a 369-acre site in Marysville, can serve as a viable backup if something unforeseen makes Everett unworkable. The Marysville site was rated second-best in the consultant’s study, which weighed long lists of pros and cons against objective criteria.
Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, who prefers the Marysville site, worries that a campus at Everett Station will make the transit center less accessible to non-university commuters. Planners should get busy designing ways to ensure that doesn’t happen.
Uniting behind a site, rather than fighting over two, is key to getting the rest of the Legislature to appropriate the money necessary to keep the campus moving toward reality, according to Gov. Chris Gregoire. The state will be asked to invest up to $1 billion in the new campus in the coming years, money that shouldn’t come out of other higher education budgets.
The need is clear, given our growing population and the state’s poor rankings nationally in issuing bachelor’s degrees, but the road to securing that big an investment is bound to be bumpy. A fight within the local delegation can only make it bumpier.
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