Branch campus bingo
Communities in Snohomish County are like rabid Dawgs vying for a University of Washington branch campus. But what will they get? Here's a look at the UW branches in Bothell and Tacoma and their local imprints.
The site of the next University of Washington campus has been narrowed to a final four: two sites in Everett (Everett Station and Riverside Point), Marysville, and Lake Stevens. A consultant will deliver a recommendation to Gov. Chris Gregoire this week, and lawmakers are tasked with choosing the winner during the 2008 legislative session.
In Everett, citizens have turned out in droves at pep rallies wearing Husky purple, flying their Dawg flags high. Marysville is busy positioning itself as the apex of a possible tri-counties campus. Lake Stevens officials dream of a campus with easy access from Highway 2 and an improved Highway 9. It seems there are no detractors of the notion of planting a UW flag in Snohomish County. More than 70 sites volunteered to the initial call. Is this prize really such a big deal?
The UW in Snohomish County might not be like the existing branch campuses in Tacoma and Bothell – a technology-driven curriculum is being discussed for the north branch, as well as a residential experience, whereas the other two offer a range of degrees and are not residential campuses. But a look at the Tacoma and Bothell locations is instructive in how a UW branch can adapt to and influence the surrounding communities – and other nearby colleges.
From an economic revitalization perspective, the University of Washington campus in Tacoma presents a strong case. UWT is a visual anchor in Tacoma's downtown corridor, and much of what grounds Tacoma in working-class history has been preserved through appealing, innovative architectural renovations to existing warehouses. The campus is both impressive and inviting, positioned across from the Museum of Glass and the Washington State History Museum, with the Link light rail offering ease of movement from there to the Sounder station and to points higher up the downtown slope. There's a flurry of activity in and around the campus on most days, and plenty of new businesses moving in to cater to the student crowds. ItÂ’s easy to see why Everett, especially, would want to replicate this model.
UWT's curriculum is vitally shaped by its site, as well, most notably in the Urban Studies program. Urban Studies provides students the opportunity to study cities in an interdisciplinary way, across the fields of history, sociology, economics, political science, and environmental science, and leads to careers in urban planning, public administration, and other areas.
However, the academic offerings in Tacoma and at UW's other branch campus, in Bothell, are of course not the same as the prestigious schools of study on the main campus in Seattle. Neither Tacoma nor Bothell offers a single course of study through the Ph.D. level, and undergraduate and master's degrees are limited to a handful of fields, represented by programs – not full schools of study as found in Seattle.
UW-Bothell programs of study:
Business Administration
Computing & Software Systems
Education
Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
Nursing
Applied Computing
Policy Studies
Cultural Studies
UW-Tacoma programs of study:
Business Administration
Computing & Software Systems
Education
Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences
Nursing
Computer Engineering & Systems
Environmental Science
Social Welfare
Urban Studies
Global Honors (emphasis on global interactions)
U.S. News & World Report, which ranks colleges according to such metrics as student/faculty ratio and number of entering freshmen in the top 25 percent of their class, ranks the University of Washington 42nd in the nation, 12th when the field is more meaningfully narrowed to public universities. Among Washington universities offering education only through the master's level, neither Bothell nor Tacoma has yet achieved ranking. Here's the ranking of other Washington master's degree-granting universities.
6 Seattle University 9 Whitworth University 13 Pacific Lutheran University 14 Seattle Pacific University 27 Evergreen State College 39 Walla Walla University 43 Central Washington University 43 Eastern Washington University 58 St. Martin's University
Given the program limitations of both Bothell and Tacoma, it's worth considering why UW hasn't expanded in a more research-focused manner, or with residential campuses. California's board of regents has successfully done this with the first U.S. research university to open in the 21st century.
The University of California in Merced, in central California's San Joaquin Valley, officially opened in 2005 as a traditional residential university. Most importantly, the school boasts a decided emphasis on research that should be the envy of flagship public colleges everywhere. Three specialized research institutes — such as the well-respected Sierra Nevada Research Institute, which brings together experts in natural sciences, engineering, and policy — draw faculty and garner major funding that already outpaces much more established universities.
It's this focus on research that enables a city to benefit economically from a new campus, says Frank Quintero, economic development manager for the city of Merced. He and other San Joaquin Valley governing leaders have been working with UC-Merced specifically on entrepreneurship opportunities that may derive from new research, some of which has already generated new patent filings. "Say a professor develops technology that can lead to a microdish (as opposed to barrels or panels) that takes in solar energy," he says. "That technology can be turned into a product that can be commercialized."
Comments:
Posted Mon, Nov 12, 9:06 a.m. inappropriate
Brainstormin': Though I do agree that there is room for more research education in Western Washington I think we would be better served by a private institution of the caliber of a Stanford or Yale.
There is certainly demand for additional four year degrees, but I think we might be better served by expanding Community Colleges as opposed to building to many additional new sites.
It's good to hear about the urban studies focus of state schools - however I fear this will only be a continuation of the decline of responsibility in our society as justified, and manipulated, by the 'standards' of PC. It's already evidenced itself in the recent Mass and Internet High Tech booms and is now gaining a toehold in just about every corporation in America. That would include Sound Transit.
I live in the area that you might consider the residential sphere of influence of UW-T (Peter Callaghan of the Tribune has been a regular observer of this institution and for the serious 'student' I'd recommend his columns). It would be nice to see more student housing in our area, but I'm not sure how one would go about that, short of building dorms.
Transit service to all colleges should be a top priority of Sound Transit. As it stands they seem to place a higher priority on wooing visitors than actually building a system that will serve our own - in transportation and otherwise. On that basis, Everett would get my nod for a new branch campus.
As for a private research university - what about the intersection of Lake Washington Boulevard and 520, just north of Bellevue, and across the lake from the UW.
We do need folks in advanced study - but we should be making sure that they are the very best and that they receive the best training. Creating a new bureaucracy to make more middle level managers with 'Master's' degrees is just a continuation of a bad path - one being disably created by Sound Transit (and the Monorail folks) and their legal masters.
-Douglas Tooley
Lincoln, Tacoma
Posted Mon, Nov 12, 2:54 p.m. inappropriate
New Demographics: "when most high school students envision college life, they don't see a small college without dorms perched on the side of a hill in the suburbs."
Yes, but many many high school students get less financial aid and more loans to pay for more expensive tuition to live in more expensive cities that are losing their affordable housing stock. A surprising number of undergraduates I teach at the UW in Seattle are not people who live on or near campus at all. They are people who commute from the suburbs, often living at their parents' home to save money (on campus housing is expensive too!), while working part-time and sometimes full-time jobs just to keep the loans to a minimum. And that's the 18-22 student body.
In this context, the branch campus phenomenon is addressing a very real and growing need for affordable and convenient education in an era of $40k/ year private school tuition, failed affordable housing and public transportation planning, and declining public commitment to ensure that everyone has access to a quality education. Yes in an ideal world we would just create whole new R-1 institutions of equal caliber, breadth, and depth to the UW. But if you want to meet growing demand for public education from a Democratic Party that thinks it will be "political suicide" to oppose Tim Eyman, then what options do you have?
The branch campuses seem to have been very innovative with what little they've been given, and deserve our praise. It's all well and good to praise UC Merced, but that is still being done in the context of a Cal State system that we don't have anything comparable to. If you're troubled by the branch campus extensions, show me the money to do something better and then let's talk.
Posted Tue, Nov 13, 2:53 p.m. inappropriate
The state needs high quality bachelor's degree programs: Should Washington taxpayers focus on new research-based campuses to fuel economic development? Not if the success of such ventures depends upon the availability of educated employees. Washington state is a net importer of people with bachelor's and higher degrees, and many new enterprises struggle in Washington because they can't hire qualified people. Building more capacity at the top of the educational ladder doesn't make sense here.
Educating place-bound people seems to work well for the state as a whole, even if the impact is initially regional. Students at the Tacoma and Bothell campuses largely come from Washington and most stay in the state after they graduate, so we don't lose them to other states. They also get amazing quality education for the money and some students already know this. In every class I teach at UW Tacoma I have students who chose Tacoma over Seattle, having been accepted in both places. Students get small class sizes rather than giant lecture halls, highly qualified faculty instead of doctoral students or part time teachers, and innovative courses and programs that faculty in "prestigious schools of study" often envy. (Note: The Tacoma campus does have a school -- the Milgard School of Business - which was the first business school on any UW campus to be endowed). Add a residential component and these campuses have a chance at competing for Washington's top high school students, many of whom who head out of state for bachelor's degrees rather than risk getting lost in the crowd as undergrads at a huge research university.
Regarding US News and World Report rankings, the Tacoma and Bothell campuses are not yet ranked because they are not eligible for consideration (a search of US News' online database would have revealed this to the author). An obvious reason is that as upper-division campuses, they haven't had data to report regarding freshman acceptance and retention rates, SAT scores, etc. which are vital criteria for inclusion.
And what's with the obsolete "branch campus" label? The state and the UW don't use this term. Just look carefully at the highway signs on I-5 marking the Tacoma campus exit - the word "branch" was removed years ago. Is UCLA still considered a branch campus?
Posted Fri, Nov 16, 12:47 p.m. inappropriate
Give UWT a break: UWT is a new campus -- of course it's not a major, ranked school. Yet. If UWT grows over the next 10 years as it's grown over the last then, pretty soon we will start seeing something that resembles the UC system. I hope Everett sees UWE get off to the same fast start UWT has. It should probably absorb UW Bothell to get off to a faster start. UWB is simply too close to the Seattle campus to make much sense.