In our view: More WSUV Degrees

The higher-education hits just keep on comin’ in Clark County. Enrollment at Clark College soared this year to almost 15,000 students (despite hefty tuition increases imposed by legislators); that’s a 45 percent enrollment increase in two years. Five miles north, Washington State University Vancouver continues to expand its offerings as a major four-year university, with last week’s announcement of two new degrees.

Bachelor of arts degrees in history and sociology have been approved for WSUV by the Washington Higher Education Coordinating Board. WSU’s regents are expected to approve the new degrees later this year.

While Clark College’s growth has been steady and incremental for almost 77 years, WSUV’s rise has been more rocketlike since 1983. Even the most optimistic promoters of WSUV might have had difficulty envisioning what has happened since the school began in 1989, opened its scenic Salmon Creek campus in 1996 and expanded to full four-year status in 2006.

When history and sociology majors are added this fall, WSUV will have 18 bachelor’s degrees, 10 master’s degrees, one doctoral degree and more than three dozen fields of study pursued by 3,000-plus students.

The far-reaching effects of WSUV’s rapid growth on the community — particularly on a corner of the state that had been deprived of public university resources for far too long — should not be overlooked. Higher education is crucial to keeping our region competitive in regional, national and global markets.

Consider what’s going on in Spokane, where officials from public and private sectors are trying to secure a four-year medical school. According to The Spokesman-Review, one national consultant has praised the multistate effort to begin the med school’s academic offerings at Riverpoint Campus, where classes are offered by Eastern Washington University, Sirti and Washington State University Spokane. This med-school journey is only its first steps, but a 20-year plan could expand the economic impact of Riverpoint Campus from $212 million a year to $1.6 billion.

That effort illustrates the kind of competition that Southwest Washington faces in economic development and expanding access to higher education. For sure, no one’s talking about a med school here (yet), but in higher education as a whole, we’re competing well against other parts of the state. Recent progress at Clark College and WSUV proves that point.

The two new degrees at WSUV will offer job opportunities in traditional but also developing fields. And let us take this opportunity to protect sociology and history from pseudo-critics of other fields of study. Among those skeptics has been public-radio star (and Sunday Columbian columnist) Garrison Keillor, who periodically on “A Prairie Home Companion” spoofs his Professional Organization of English Majors (P.O.E.M.). No such derision is due the history and sociology degrees that WSUV will offer. History majors land jobs in teaching, at museums, interpretive sites and libraries and in government. In many cases, they set the table for law school and other advanced studies. Sociology degrees can lead to jobs in social services, public relations, teaching, government and industry. At WSU Pullman, the number of sociology degrees in the past five years has increased by more than one-third.

Congratulations to WSUV for giving area residents two more reasons to jump on the higher-education bandwagon.