Vancouver Colleges Work Together to Offer Lots of Education Options
central park, education, hal dengerink, nancy youlden, robin terjeson, vancouver, washington state university,
Bring on the freshmen.
Upperclassmen at Washington State University Vancouver are finding some fresh young faces around campus – a much-anticipated change for the school‚ founded in 1989 as an upper-division and graduate school only.
Freshmen and sophomores joined the campus in fall 2006‚ marking the university’s emergence as a four-year institution.
Chancellor Hal Dengerink says the decision to change to a four-year school was the result of a positive response to surveys taken among high school students‚ community members‚ faculty and university students.
The initial class of freshmen and sophomores numbered 330‚ with an average freshman age of 18.11 years. In the past‚ the university has traditionally attracted students who are already settled in jobs and marriages‚ Dengerink notes‚ with an average age of 28 years.
The class of 157 freshman students had an average high school grade point average of 3.52‚ were 55 percent female‚ 45 percent male and included 15.9 percent minorities. Popular academic majors among the first-year students were biology‚ business and mechanical engineering.
“Our freshmen class very much mirrors the freshmen class at the main campus in Pullman‚” says Nancy Youlden‚ vice chancellor for student affairs. “Students are choosing our campus because of the quality education‚ access to faculty and the welcoming environment.”
As the student body takes on a younger look‚ Dengerink says‚ one thing won’t change: the outstanding relationship between WSU Vancouver and Clark College‚ a two-year community college that has supplied the majority of WSU Vancouver upper-class students for years.
Clark has an enrollment of 12‚500 full-time and part-time students and is located in Vancouver’s historic Central Park.
The “two-plus-two” concept has been “working like a charm‚” Dengerink says.
Robin Terjeson‚ dean for math‚ physical sciences and engineering at Clark‚ agrees. As a 33-year veteran at the college‚ she has witnessed first-hand the success of the long history enjoyed by the two campuses.
Terjeson points out that when established in 1989‚ WSU Vancouver first occupied Boer Hall on the Clark campus. And although 10 miles separate the two main campuses‚ there is now a Clark College building on the new WSU Vancouver campus in Salmon Creek‚ which opened in January 2006.
In June 2006‚ WSU Vancouver and Clark‚ along with Lower Columbia College‚ crafted a precedent-setting agreement guaranteeing that all students who complete the co-admission and transfer-by-major process‚ previously agreed to by the three institutions‚ will be able to transfer to WSU Vancouver.
“It is a unique arrangement that serves our students better than any such agreement in the state‚” Dengerink says.
Story by Sandy Campbell
Photo by Michael W. Bunch
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