Should there be a new state university in the Seattle area? (Tacoma: real estate, credit)

[DevanXL]

We've reached a period of time where more and more kids are opt-ing to stay in state and go to school. Many students who dream of going to a UC school or liberal arts college on the east coast are deciding to save money and stay close to home. This in my opinion is creating an imbalance of Schools in the state university system. Every school in the state is affected by the university of Washington. When they decide to reject kids every other in state school grows significantly. The problem is there is only 1 true state college here in the Seattle area and it happens to be the most prestigious of the Universities. Being someone who is in college, I've found that many kids feel forced to have to go east of the mountains when they would rather stay over here. One great thing is the rapid expansion of UW Tacoma which in the next decade will be more like University of Tacoma rather then UW Tacoma. But even with that, in a state with an increasing population and a major city like Seattle, I think there should be atleast one more large university in the Seattle area.


In my opinion I think the State should open out a true institute of technology with support of the big businesses here (like Microsoft, Amazon, etc) and along the west coast. In process it will add another option between that and UW for students that are interested in engineering for in state students so they wont have to compete with the influx of the out of state and international students that are going to the university of washington. To create a superior technology and engineering school here in the Northwest that will compete with UW and other top tier schools. It will also create new jobs in the area and if put in the right location could transform an area. I think a location in Bremerton would be perfect as its not directly in the city but close enough. If not there the cascade foothills areas in the eastside could work, near north bend.


What are your thoughts, DO you think a new state university is a good idea and could be positive for the city?

[Hemlock140]

Adding another state University will not help improve the chances for locals, it would also be full of foreign/out of state students. It would have to get that higher tuition in order to survive, and pay off the cost of building and staffing it. The state is in no financial position for such an undertaking. It would have been a good idea if done back about 2002, but it's too late now. Both Western and Central are close enough to serve the Seattle region, and there are several private colleges in Seattle. Even Bellevue is now a four year college. If anything, expansion of Bellevue and/or UW would be more cost-effective. With more children that will be going to college on the eastside than in Seattle, Central is actually not that much farther than Bremerton would be, either would be a long commute, and if people are going to live on campus they can go to the existing state universities.

[Inkpoe]

I agree that there should be an expansion on Bellevue College.

The problem actually lies with UW... they do not want anyone else to get a bigger slice of the money pie and IIRC actually has stopped some of the expansion programs at BC a few years ago. I remember reading in the article that UW was saying that the money shouldn't be going to BC as they're (UW) looking to expand their campus locations (I think one of the locations is Snohomish, or somewhere up there) to better serve the Seattle Metro area.

I think that if there is to be such a STEM institute meant to educate the young'un population in the area, that the companies would be better served supporting a programs at UW and/or the communities colleges, rather than a full-fledged brand new school (it does take a while to get the proper accreditation). The idea is not completely foreign. Before my BIL got his job, he got his certification in a program at Clover Park CC, which is supported by Boeing.

[kyled]

Just for humor's sake I would not be opposed to a Washington Institute of Technology...it would be full of WIT. It could be Seattle Institute of Technology as well...but I'd have to SIT on that for a while.

[DevanXL]

Central isnt too far but Bremerton is still only a short boat ride to Seattle. Continuing expansion to BU should be happening it I know uw wants all the money. Obviously a state can't just spring up a university out of nowhere and it would probably take a decade just to get anything into action. I'm think more towards the future then of right now. More and more kids are going to school and this is an area that should groom the top talent for the available jobs here . I believe you can only do so much expansion to some universities. Central is always a mix-bag of positives and negatives. The foreign talent will always be at uw but its the point of adding another option within the state . Alot of in state kids are going to schools like Montana state for there engineering because they can't get into the uw schools as its overly competitive with companies like Boeing funding programs there to reach for there talent. Yes currently the state isn't an the financial position but there is no harm in talking. Many other states are popping up satellite campuses and expansions of there university systems. The stigma with uw satellite schools is it's not "UW". But in the next 2 decades our population will significantly increase so I don't think it's a bad idea for the future outlook. Schools like wsu, eastern, central, and western, can only handle so many students, let alone get so many students to choose to go there.

[sean98125]

The 3 community colleges are rebranding themselves a colleges and are working toward offering more 4 year degrees instead of just associate's degrees. There are an increasing number of satellite campuses for the UW and WSU and other state institutions around the state, like the university center in Everett that is shared by a lot of the state universities.

It's unlikely that you'll see another university with a giant campus like a traditional state university again. Real estate is too expensive. You'll see a lot more smaller facilities about the size of a community college that serve several of the state universities from one location. The taxpayers don't need to add a ton of deans and officers to run a new school when the schools that already exist have the bandwidth to provide more students with an education. I wouldn't be surprised to see fewer actual classes and more online studies - a webcast is far more cost efficient than lecture halls, bus passes and parking lots and the interaction between the students and teachers is about the same.

[bler144]

We're in a phase where enrollments are expected to drop for the next decade (and down about 3-5% already over the past 2 years). So a major campus expansion now that would be reliant on capturing excess demand would be a risky gamble.

And while the cost of debt is fairly low right now, as others have mentioned, RE for installing a campus is very expensive almost anywhere there would be local student demand.

[thatguy950]

I don't think so. IMO, college is already far too accessible and filled with people who, quite honestly, do not belong there. Making college even more accessible will only perpetuate the problem; costs going up, BA/BS degrees being further devalued, education quality decreasing, and so on. If you "truly belong" in college (I.E. have the drive and motivation, and/or resources) by all means, enroll. Unfortunately too many students are swamped with debt because they went to college to get "educated," when in reality leave with no skills or real education. Very few students of this generation want to or are willing to spend the time and effort to study things like engineering, math, actuarial science, accounting, finance, computer science, or any other valuable degrees in which they can learn skills necessary to compete, instead the entitlement generation wants everything handed to them and feel "above" many of the jobs available to them with their Poli Sci or English degrees.


More universities in this area will only make this problem worse, IMO. I suppose that's more of a fundamental issue, but an issue nonetheless.

/end rant

[greenlite]

Originally Posted by thatguy950

I don't think so. IMO, college is already far too accessible and filled with people who, quite honestly, do not belong there. Making college even more accessible will only perpetuate the problem; costs going up, BA/BS degrees being further devalued, education quality decreasing, and so on. If you "truly belong" in college (I.E. have the drive and motivation, and/or resources) by all means, enroll. Unfortunately too many students are swamped with debt because they went to college to get "educated," when in reality leave with no skills or real education. Very few students of this generation want to or are willing to spend the time and effort to study things like engineering, math, actuarial science, accounting, finance, computer science, or any other valuable degrees in which they can learn skills necessary to compete, instead the entitlement generation wants everything handed to them and feel "above" many of the jobs available to them with their Poli Sci or English degrees.


More universities in this area will only make this problem worse, IMO. I suppose that's more of a fundamental issue, but an issue nonetheless.

/end rant

what if I dont wanna be an engineer, mathematician, accountant, etc? I dont get this hate really. You not paying their bills. People can study what they want. What's worthless to you, may not be worthless to them. STEM degrees are not good for all careers.

[thatguy950]

Originally Posted by greenlite

what if I dont wanna be an engineer, mathematician, accountant, etc? I dont get this hate really. You not paying their bills. People can study what they want. What's worthless to you, may not be worthless to them. STEM degrees are not good for all careers.

Knew that was coming. We all end up paying their bills eventually. Higher taxes, more taxes, higher tuition, decreased value of 4-year degrees, cleaning up Downtown Seattle after all those who can't find a job and have 200k in debt "occupy" something, etc. All I said was college isn't for everyone, a lot of people don't have what it takes, simple as that, yet they go anyway and end up creating more problems than they solved.

I agree people can study what they want, but what I don't want is a bunch of whiny 20-somethings crying to big government mommy to bail them out when things didn't go exactly their way. Unfortunately this happens a lot these days.