On Jan. 25, 2004, a diminutive lady from Magnolia quietly entered an office in the temporary state capitol, set down an envelope and started an earthquake. More than a year later, the shockwaves are still reverberating across the state.
Her name was Helen Sommers and her aim was not to shake up the physical symbol of the state of Washington, but its higher education system.
Her plan was elegant but simple. Without letting almost anyone know, she dropped a bill in the code reviser’s office that would create a new, four-year college in the state for the first time in 37 years.
But this was no ordinary plan. The seismic ingredient was her proposal to dissolve the University of Washington, Bothell, and create a four-year comprehensive university in its place — Cascadia State University.
Rep. Helen Sommers, ’69, ’70, was motivated by the lack of public higher education in the north Puget Sound region. (UW Bothell and UW Tacoma are limited to classes for juniors, seniors and graduate students.) “We do not have a four-year comprehensive institution and we need one,” she told the Seattle Times. “Some of us felt very strongly that it’s time to rethink and make some changes.”
Few at the UW knew that this was coming. “It was pandemonium,” recalls UW Bothell Chancellor Warren Buck. “It really scared people.”
UWB students worried they wouldn’t get a UW degree. Faculty started dusting off their resumes. At least one student who had registered for winter quarter classes withdrew and demanded a refund. Next door to Buck’s office, the faculty and staff of Cascadia Community College worried about their future too. The community college is located on the same campus as UW Bothell and had been open for only three years.
Sommers’ bill sent aftershocks across the state, prompting other upper-division campuses to also consider their future. “It’s a wake-up call,” said Rep. Phyllis Gutierrez Kenney, who also sponsored the bill.
“We are not providing enough opportunities for our citizens to earn a bachelor’s degree.”
Mark Emmert, UW president
Sommers was in the mood to shake things up for two reasons. The state is facing a crisis in access to higher education as the “baby boom echo” graduates from high school. To serve the same percentage of citizens enrolled in public higher education in the beginning of the decade, the state will have to create 33,000 additional slots by 2009 — a task equal to building a brand new daytime campus for the University of Washington in Seattle.
As an added twist, many say the state’s higher education system is out of balance. There are 34 community and technical colleges that served 260,488 students in 2002. There are only six institutions that offer bachelor’s degrees, serving 102,868 that same year. Looking at national participation rates, Washington ranks fourth in the number of adults working toward a two-year degree at public institutions. But the state ranks 46th in the nation for the same group working toward a bachelor’s degree at public schools.
“We are not providing enough opportunities for our citizens to earn a bachelor’s degree,” says UW President Mark Emmert, ’75. Citing studies from the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, he said there will be a “very significant shortfall” by 2008. “That’s going to cause a great deal of concern and disruption,” Emmert warns.
Sommers’ plan to turn UWB into a four-year school was one response to the coming crisis. At the same time, community leaders in southwestern Washington were talking about creating a four-year program at WSU Vancouver. Eventually Sommers’ bill evolved into a study of all upper-division campuses in the state — what were once known as “branch” campuses of UW and WSU. And those studies have, in turn, created their own shockwaves.
The debate goes back to 1988 and the bill that launched regional campuses. Lawmakers told the UW to start campuses in Bothell and Tacoma and WSU to start them in Vancouver, the Tri-Cities and Spokane. The doors had to open in the fall of 1990.
Under state law these institutions could only offer classes at the junior, senior and master’s degree levels. They would not compete with community colleges, instead serving students who have interrupted their college education and want to complete it. Also, students who finished their first two years at community colleges could transfer for their last two years of instruction — what officials call the two-plus-two model.
“If you look at the numbers, there is a need for lower-division classes that do not compete with community colleges.”
Warren Buck, UW Bothell chancellor
President Emmert is himself a two-plus-two student. The Fife native took almost all of his freshman and sophomore classes at Green River Community College in the early 1970s, transferring to the UW in 1973 to finish his bachelor’s degree in political science.
But some higher education consultants think that the two-plus-two system is inefficient when it comes to generating bachelor’s degrees. One national study followed 1,000 high school graduates who went off to college. Of that group, 530 started at a four-year college and 350 got a degree — a graduation rate of 66 percent. The remaining 370 started at a two-year institution and 69 got a bachelor’s degree — a graduation rate of 19 percent.
Washington’s graduation numbers may not be much better than this national study, but that doesn’t mean two-plus-two isn’t working. According to the state Higher Education Coordinating Board, about 40 percent of all students who graduate with a B.A. from public colleges and universities earned at least some of their credits at a community college.
Because of the inefficiencies, some states have evolved away from a two-plus-two model. University of Michigan branches in Flint and Dearborn started as upper-division campuses. Now both are four-year institutions. President Emmert used to teach at the University of Colorado at Denver, which also started as an upper-division branch of the main campus in Boulder but is now a four-year school with 12,000 students and more than 80 degree programs.
Emmert and the chancellors at both UWB and UWT disagree with the notion that the two-plus-two system should be replaced. “The two-plus-two model has some great advantages but it also has its limitations,” Emmert says. “We don’t want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. What we want to do is add more options, not eliminate opportunities.”
Emmert made this point when he and the chancellors reported to the higher education board in December. They embraced two-plus-two, calling for dramatic expansion in the number of openings they have for transfer students from community colleges. UW Tacoma wants to add more than 4,000 new seats for transfers by 2014. UW Bothell is asking for 3,900 more seats by 2020 just for transfers. And the Seattle campus will continue to reserve 30 percent of all new enrollments for transfers.
But all of these studies — two for UW and two for WSU — also called for a change in missions. The plans asked for new legislation to let these campuses offer some classes for freshmen and sophomores as well. The beginnings are modest — 100 new freshmen for UWT and 90 for UWB by 2007 — but the implications are dramatic. Community college officials, the news media and lawmakers have all zeroed in on the idea that these four regional campuses could now evolve into four-year universities.
The aim is not to siphon off community college students, say UW officials, but to attract students who want a four-year college experience in one setting. The Seattle campus turns away more than 3,000 resident students each year who would be qualified to attend if there were enough room. “Many of those who are turned away go to college out of state,” says UWT Interim Chancellor Steven Olswang, ’77. “A lot of them never come back.”
Both UWT and UWB want to offer a place where freshmen and sophomores take most of their classes together. They want to establish a cohesive learning community.
“If you look at the numbers, there is a need for lower-division classes that do not compete with community colleges,” says UWB’s Buck.
“The four-year model will benefit transfer students who are doing two-plus-two as well,” adds Olswang. If a business student in Tacoma decides to focus on the Asian economy, that student has to travel to a community college to take an introductory course in Asian history or an Asian language. By offering lower-division courses, transfer students can complete their B.A.s in one setting, rather than bouncing back and forth.
Both chancellors emphasize that they are not abandoning the two-plus-two model, but rather strengthening it. Their plans call for rapid expansion for transfers: The ratio of transfers to freshmen in the UWT plan is 8 to 1; in the UWB plan it is 13 to 1.
In addition, the plans call for a more seamless transition for two-plus-two students. One proposal is a joint application with local community colleges that would accept two-plus-two students to a specific UW campus at the same time they become freshmen at their lower-division school.
Despite the assurances from UW and WSU that there are plenty of students to go around, community colleges are wary. While Cascadia’s president endorsed the UWB plan, one Tacoma educator was hesitant about UWT’s proposal. “Given how limited state resources are right now, we need to use our scarce dollars as prudently as possible,” says Tacoma Community College President Pamela Transue, ’73.
Transue was a member of the committee that wrote the plan for UW Tacoma. Her expertise in the state higher education system goes back to the birth of UWT and UWB, when she worked on the Seattle campus as a special assistant to UW President William P. Gerberding. “I was very much in the middle of the birth of the branches,” she recalls.
She says she fully supports the UWT recommendations but thinks the time is not right for offering freshman and sophomore classes. “The bottleneck is at the baccalaureate-level. Our transfer students need upper-division classes. The priority in Tacoma should be developing additional baccalaureate capacity and graduate capacity before expanding to the lower-division level,” she says.
The state gets more education for the dollars it puts into community colleges, she adds, because the cost of education is cheaper than at a research university.
Olswang concedes that what he calls “simple access” is cheaper at community colleges. “But does that lead to expanded access to a bachelor’s degree? If you are looking for more B.A. degrees, we are by far the cheaper alternative,” he declares.
Money weighs heavily on all facets of the conversation. The price tag starts small but quickly grows. In the coming state budget, the UW is asking for $9 million to cover expanding enrollments at both UWT and UWB. But by 2015, the UWT expansion would cost $54 million annually. The UWB expansion would cost $42.5 million annually by 2020. In addition, there are construction costs for both campuses: $207 million for UWT and $163 million for UWB.
The WSU plans have similar price tags. To serve 3,645 full-time students by 2015, WSU Vancouver estimates $164 million in capital costs and an additional $33.3 million in annual operating expenses. WSU Tri-Cities estimates $103 million in capital costs and an additional $15 million in annual operating expenses to serve 1,800 full-time students.
On Jan. 27, the state Higher Education Coordinating Board recommended that UW Tacoma and WSU Vancouver begin to admit freshmen and sophomores. It decided to wait for a year before making a decision on UW Bothell and WSU Tri-Cities.
“Saying you can’t afford education is the most short-sighted thing you can ever say.”
Mark Emmert, UW president
But the Legislature may have different ideas. Currently there are bills in both the House and the Senate that would authorize all four regional campuses to teach freshmen and sophomores. But with a $1.7 billion shortfall in the state budget, opponents are asking where the money will come from to fund these plans.
The Legislature could make its decision by doing nothing and hoping that college graduates continue to come here from other states. Lawmakers know that to drive a 21st century economy, the state needs college graduates. Since Washington ranks 46th in the number of citizens working toward a bachelor’s degree, it has to import college graduates.
On the surface, some might say this “importation scheme” is working. The 2000 census found that, per capita, Washington ranks in the top 10 in the nation in the number of adults with college degrees. “Why not let other states pay for a costly college education and then import the graduates as Washington needs them?” some politicians might ask.
Of course, this closes the door of opportunity to Washington’s own citizens. “Sure there may be an economic upside to exporting our students looking for a college degree,” says UW State Relations Director Randy Hodgins, ’79, ’83, as long as the state successfully imports enough college graduates. “But what kind of message does that send to Washington parents and their kids?”
Emmert says importing college graduates “only works if you want students from California and Michigan to get the high paying jobs while the sons and daughters of Washington are out washing cars.
“Saying you can’t afford education is the most short-sighted thing you can ever say.”
Besides budgetary limits, other political forces are also in play. More than a year ago, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer said in an editorial that the UW Bothell campus was “misplaced” and that a four-year campus belongs “in or near” Everett, a position the UW does not endorse. Some community colleges feel that if the UW’s and WSU’s newer campuses are going to start courses for freshmen and sophomores, they should be able to offer courses for juniors and seniors.
Then there is continued pressure for more access to the Seattle campus. The UW continues its longtime policy of reserving 30 percent of all new enrollment space in Seattle for transfers. This year that was more than 2,300 students. But because there are more and more students clamoring to get in but almost no additional enrollment space, Seattle is delaying or turning away more and more transfers.
Emmert says it might make sense to add a modest number of new spaces for undergraduates and graduates at the Seattle campus, but that he doesn’t want to “stretch the capacity to deliver a high quality education.” He also points to the constraints of a high density urban campus. The majority of the growth for undergraduates, he says, must come at Bothell and Tacoma.
Meanwhile Helen Sommers is back in Olympia for her 33rd year as a legislator. She once again heads the House Appropriations Committee and sits on its Higher Education Committee as well. So far there have been no new surprises. Like most lawmakers, she is waiting for the March state revenue forecast. Those numbers may have a large role in the decision to expand the missions of the four campuses in Bothell, Tacoma, the Tri-Cities and Vancouver.
“The state is going to have to make some hard choices,” says UWT’s Olswang. “It has to decide if higher education is going to be an essential part of the services the state provides.”