Cheers: To enrollment at Washington State University Vancouver. Officials at Southwest Washington’s only four-year college this week announced record enrollment of 3,426 students — an increase of 3.7 percent from last fall. The school has implemented a five-year strategic plan that aims to have 5,000 students enrolled by 2021.
The presence of the 27-year-old university is essential to a prosperous future for the region. The school helps prevent the brain drain of bright high school graduates leaving the area, and it helps to produce the kind of workers that are sought by burgeoning local industries. Both of those traits will provide long-term benefits to the local economy while serving a part of the state that previously was overlooked when it came to higher education. “Our goal from Day One has always been to serve this region,” school official Nancy Youlden said. “That’s inherent in why we are here.”
Jeers: To federal marijuana policy. There are plenty of jeers to go around in the case of Sticky’s Pot Shop in Hazel Dell, but we’ll start at the top. Because marijuana still is illegal at the federal level, it is imperative for local jurisdictions to have the ability to act against voter-approved legalization in the state. The Clark County council has done that, declining to issue licenses for marijuana businesses.
John Larson ignored that moratorium and opened a shop in Hazel Dell. A county hearings examiner ruled that he lied about the nature of the business in order to obtain a license. Now county officials have forced the shop to close. That is their right, and the issue won’t be resolved until national policy aligns with what opinion polls indicate is a national preference for legalization of the drug.
Cheers: To housing for homeless veterans. About 40 veterans have taken up residence at Freedom’s Path, a new development on Vancouver’s Veterans Affairs campus. The facility offers low-cost housing and also provides residents with a much-needed community setting.
Much attention has been given to addressing the area’s homeless population, and the needs of veterans who served this country should be high on the priority list. As one resident said: “Having a place to live, a place to call my own, an actual address — I can communicate with my family, and they can see I’m stable again.”
Jeers: To corporate influence on public policy. A recent report from the Associated Press and the Center for Public Integrity detailed how drug companies spent at least $880 million over the past decade on contributions to candidates and lobbying efforts designed to influence legislation related to opioids. This was pertinent in Washington, where the Legislature in 2010 passed a bill sponsored by Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, to establish guidelines for pain-medication prescriptions, despite opposition from drug companies.
Opioid overdoses have supplanted car accidents as the nation’s No. 1 cause of accidental deaths. That calls for leadership from lawmakers at both the state and federal level — without being bamboozled by corporate interests more concerned with profit than patient health.
Cheers: To generosity. Thursday’s Give More 24! campaign, benefiting a variety of local causes, raised about $900,000 for more than 100 local nonprofit groups.
Organized by the Community Foundation for Southwest Washington, the 24-hour give-a-thon combined online donations with events to raise money that improves our community. Bringing many fundraising efforts together lends some critical mass to the occasion and is a clever way to draw increased attention to worthy causes.
