It’s a breakthrough year at Washington State University Vancouver, as it quickly adds muscle and character while it grows into its teen years on its pretty hillside.
The 2010 graduating class will include freshman students who began at the Salmon Creek campus in 2006 — completing a long-sought dream of providing a homegrown, four-year college education wholly within Clark County.
With freshmen and sophomores helping to pad the student body, the school counted nearly 3,000 students by late 2009, a jump of more than 5 percent from the previous year.
They pursued any of 16 bachelor’s degrees, 10 master’s degrees and a single doctorate degree (education), or one of many professional certifications.
There’s plenty more change afoot at WSUV, which bloomed at its present home in 1996 after first setting up camp at Vancouver’s Clark College in 1989.
WSUV seeks to offer another bachelor’s degree starting this year, in sociology. It also hopes to add a second doctorate program — a Doctor of Nursing Practice.
Construction proceeds full-speed on a new, $43.5 million Applied Technology Classroom building, the latest of many additions to the 350-acre campus.
By autumn 2011, the center should house the electrical engineering degree program, added in 2008 at the urging of Southwest Washington’s high-tech employers.
The degree features customized study in digital systems, electrical devices and materials, or in networks and communications systems. Graduates could be wooed by Clark County companies such as Sharp Microelectronics, WaferTech, SEH America, nLight and Silicon Forest Electronics.
This fall, WSUV will open a private kindergarten for any school-related student or employee in its newly remodeled McClaskey building. Tuition will be charged for a maximum 20 children enrolled in all-day kindergarten or other child care.
A $1.5 million gift from the Tod and Maxine McClaskey Foundation to the school’s Child Development Program fueled the move.
All the while, school faculty continue to garner an impressive array of research and other professional grants to advance projects across many disciplines — from cultural studies to new media and communications to complex earth sciences.
