Chancellor Mel Netzhammer of Washington State University Vancouver spoke optimistically about the branch campus’s opportunities and challenges it faces in the coming year. The occasion was the annual state of the campus address Tuesday afternoon at the branch campus in Salmon Creek.
Fall enrollment was up slightly — 1.8 percent over the previous fall. In recent years when legislators voted for double-digit tuition increases, the campus experienced a 5 percent enrollment decline. Before the tuition increase, enrollment increased by 7 to 10 percent annually.
Netzhammer is optimistic about next fall’s enrollment goal of 3,430 students. That’s a 3.8 percent increase over last fall’s enrollment.
“The enrollment landscape has changed dramatically,” he said. “Students of color have increased four-fold.”
WSU Vancouver fast facts
What: Branch campus in the WSU system.
Year founded: 1989.
Campus size: 351 acres.
Enrollment, fall 2015: 3,305.
Degree programs: 20 bachelors; 12 masters; 16 doctorate.
Areas of study: 23.
Graduates in 2014-’15: 782 bachelors; 116 masters, 13 doctorates.
Average student age: 26.
Average undergraduate age: 25.
Annual tuition and fees: $11,736 (two semesters, full-time, in-state, undergraduate).
Website: http://vancouver.wsu.edu
Since 2003, students of color have increased from 6.3 percent to 23 percent.
The percentage of first-generation college students is increasing, too. Of last fall’s incoming freshman class, 55.8 percent are first-generation college students.
“That’s huge,” he said.
The average age of an undergraduate student at WSU Vancouver is 25. The majority of students juggle their college classes with work and family. He noted that the majority of the campus’s classes are offered from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. weekdays. That’s when many students are holding down their jobs.
“We offer a very traditional experience to a very nontraditional student body,” he said.
Part of the work ahead means putting programs in place to retain students and keep them on campus to finish their degree.
The campus recently revised its mission statement. Next, a 40-member team of faculty, staff and students will tackle finalizing the strategic plan’s draft goals next month.
Netzhammer held up a trophy and smiled: “We have our first athletic trophy!”
The WSU Vancouver Cougars don’t have athletic teams. It turns out it was a trophy from the school’s walkathon competition against another college.
“We won!” he said with enthusiasm.
Netzhammer began his work as the second chancellor in the history of the campus in July 2012. He was unanimously recommended to then-WSU President Elson Floyd by a 17-member search committee after a nationwide search.
Hal Dengerink, WSUV’s first chancellor, retired for health reasons in the summer of 2011 and died a month later. He’d led WSU Vancouver from its inception as a branch campus at Clark College in 1989.
month later. He’d led WSU Vancouver from its inception as a branch campus at Clark College in 1989.
