PSU Magazine Spring 1995

t Salmon Creek, near the confluence of l-5 and l-205 north of Vancouver, construction is under way on what will be the late t link in the region's higher education network: a new branch campus of Washington State University. When its doors open in January 1996, southwestern Washington students from Long Beach to Camas and north to Longview and Kelso will have a place where they can earn bachelor and graduate degrees or take upper division courses without having to go to Seattle, Olympia, Pullman ... or even to Portland. About 400 Clark county residents are now enrolled at Portland State, and one might think that WSU's new presence on the other side of the Columbia would take them away. But unlike a new Walmart moving in down the treet from the local department tore, few-if any-administrator at either institution are looking at the new campus as a competitor. If anything, according to P U Provost Michael Reardon, "the more higher education we have in the metro region, the better it is for the region and for higher education." Reardon and WSU Campus Dean Hal Dengerink agree that the po ibilities are rich for trengthening the area' academic libraries; for fonning joint programs for students at PSU, WSU, and other local college ; and for providing the kinds of graduates that will keep attracting major employers well into the next century. But for now, there's earth moving equipment, cranes, and the sounds of construction. There is also, however, a bit of history. Wa hington State has had a presence in Clark County since 1983 when it held classes in Vancouver's Hudson's Bay High School. In 1985 it joined an informal cooperative called the Southwe -t Washington Joint Center for Education along with Clark and Lower Columbia colleges, both two-year schools, and the four-year Evergreen tare College. Bauer Hall was built on the Clark College campus for the Joint Center, and Evergreen Srate was the original tenant. In 1989, the site was formally e rablished as a WSU branch campus, and at that point, Evergreen State, which i based in Olympia, moved out and the Joint Center was dissolved. In that official first year-1989- WSU had fewer than 200 students. Today it has nearly 900, and is projected to have approximately 1,100 when the new locale opens. At that time, Bauer Hall will go back to Clark College, which, Dengerink says, needs the space. lt needs the space for the same reason WSU is building a new campu at Salmon Creek: an unmet need for higher education in that part of Washington. The six-county area (Clark, Cowlitz, Skamania, Wahkiakum, half of Klickitat and half of Pacific) served by WSU's branch campus has no other public or private institution where tudents have access to upper division or graduate-level education. WSU officials say it's the most underserved area of the state: while statewide resources provide college classroom space for one in every 120 citizens, southwest Washington has room for only one out of every 670 person . Putting a new college campus in the area makes even more sense when one considers the economic activity in the area. About 5,000 jobs were created last year in Clark County alone, most of them in manufacturing and health care, according to Mary Ann Barritt, program manager at Columbia River Economic Development Council. Major high-tech employers include Hewlett-Packard, Sharp Microelec– tronic , SEH America and, Linear Technology Corp. La t eptember, Underwriters Laboratorie Inc., established a plant in Camas to handle product testing for the Pacific North– west. UL spokesman Tim Montgomery says the plant, which now employs about 30, will expand to as many as 100 by fall 1996, and that it ha room for 400. Clark County's population of 280,800 is the result of 4 percent growth over the past five years. Barritt anticipate another 120,000 within the next 20 years. The need for the WSU campus is evident now, hut will become even more so in the near future. Dengerink says that between now and the year 2000, the area will experience a 50 percent increa e in the number of high school graduates. The problem has been where to go for a college education. University of Washington in eattle has no room for growth, he says. And WSU in Pullman is too remote to be useful to many college students if they don't live in that part of the state-particularly if finances, work, or family life make it impossible to relocate. W U went to work in filling the gap by establishing branch campuses in Spokane and the Tri-Cities; University of Washington did the same in Tacoma and Bothell. The next gap to be filled was Clark County. Although the percentage of south– western Washington's population that completes high school is similar to other parts of the state, Dengerink say they are below average in completing bachelor degrees, and have been way behind in completing graduate degrees. Much of the reason, he says, is access, even though, just acros the Columbia River, there is Portland State University, Lewis & Clark College, University of Portland, and other institutions that could fill their needs. Although ome opportunities exist for lowered fees, most Washington students would have to pay out-of- tate tuition, or private tuition. And if they're working in Vancouver, it' difficult to make the trip into Portland on a regular basis. Y eo, PonlonJ "on oltem,tive, hut not an easy one. "Our intent (in establishing WSU's branch campus) is not to wrest people back from PSU. They weren't there to begin with," says Dengerink. The roughly 400 tudents who live in Clark County and go to school at PSU typically work in Portland, he say . And most of them are pursuing degrees that WSU doesn't yet offer. In a sense, the mission of WSU in Clark County i much like that of PSU in Portland. "We were intentionally placed in a growing urban environment to serve upper division, place-bound students," says Dengerink. "We also are expected to form partnerships in the community and PRING I995 11