Washington State University-Bellevue College may still be in the conception phase, but the institution seems to have already decided on a motto: “That’s part of an ongoing discussion.”
The phrase was oft-repeated as an answer to questions posed during a public forum featuring representatives from Bellevue College and Washington State University on Sept. 8 and 9 to discuss the potential partnership between the two.
Vice President of WSU’s Global Campus David Cillay and Vice President for Government Relations and External Affairs Colleen Kerr joined Bellevue College President Dr. David Rule, Trustee Steve Miller, Dean of Undergraduate Research Dr. Gita Bangera and Vice President of Information Technology Services Russell Beard.
The event was moderated by William Shaw, Regional Publisher for Sound Publishing, which produces the Bellevue Reporter.
Bellevue College and WSU previously signed a non-binding partnership MOU in June, agreeing to explore a collaboration between the two institutions. Since then, both universities have only released a few basic details about the potential collaboration (which can be viewed online at http://www.bellevuecollege.edu/wsu/).
Issues of tuition costs, governance, admissions, curriculum, degrees, funding and more have remained generally unanswered, a stride that the administrators did not break during the forum. Various questions, including if the cost of tuition at Bellevue College (which is currently less than WSU) would be raised, continued to go unanswered at the forum.
But despite the lack of finite details, the two institutions portrayed a seemingly unified vision of the potential of the partnership and an acknowledgement of the questions and rumors surrounding the ‘merger’.
“As long as we have the big picture all figured out, the details will get worked out,” Bangera told the Reporter after the panel discussion.
While acknowledging that this is a critical time for higher education, which has become costly but struggled to prove a good return on investment during and post-recession, the panelists’ mention of “something new” for Washington sounded less like PR spin to assuade those wary of BC becoming a WSU satellite campus and more like a potential concept for higher education.
“The timing is actually perfect,” said BC President David Rule. “We’ve reached a point in the state where the Seattle metro area continues to grow, attracting more and more people needing education. I call it the bachelor degree gap. There’s a gap between what employers are asking us to supply and the number of bachelor degrees that Washington is able to produce in those areas.”
The issue of timing has been sitting just below the surface of the potential collaboration– the idea of WSU- Bellevue College was constructed by Rule and the late WSU President Elson Floyd and set into motion a mere six months before the latter’s death, and Bellevue College is on the brink of celebrating their 50th anniversary.
A mere five years after moving on from their past as a community college, Shaw asked Rule why Bellevue College would consider giving up its autonomy, just to become a pawn in WSU’s game to invade the University of Washington’s turf?
“None of us are truly autonomous,” Rule said, noting that Bellevue College remains part of a 34 school community college system. While neither school is in trouble or broken, both are seemingly hoping to get ahead of the game, together.
In terms of turf wars, both sides stressed that the goal was to serve students and their needs, and that there would be no enticements for BC students to continue their education at WSU or obstacles to prevent them from leaving to attend UW.
“If it’s an open institution, that means coming in and going out,” said Cillay. “If the students who come here choose to pursue their degree at the University of Washington or WSU or Western or Eastern, they should be free to choose wherever they want to go to pursue that education opportunity.”
