Easterner

Portland's got one. So do Boise and San Jose. And all three cities are booming.

The state colleges in these places and many others contribute to both identity and economic health.

When Washington state officials decided, in 1889, to locate Eastern Washington's big land-grant college in Pullman, Spokane suffered a blow it feels to this day.

Now the question is, stick with WSU and EWU, both remote from Spokane, or build a Spokane State University?

Gary Livingston, CEO of Community Colleges of Spokane and former Superintendent of Spokane Public Schools, is against a third major university.

"It is just not cost-effective to have three four-year institutions together," says Livingston. "When you build a campus, you're building a campus for 200 years. You have to ask, 'What's non-duplicative?'"

Livingston instead sees potential in bringing the schools together to the same table to discover their niches associated with the programs they already have.

"I think that Spokane does have unique interests and unique opportunities," Livingston points out, "but it cannot be isolated from what's happening in Cheney and Pullman."

The CEO sees an inevitable duplication in the making of another four-year university, and believes that the overlap would cause the new programs to be both uncompetitive and financially unrealistic.

Proponents of a new university are using the explosive enrollment increases that have disrupted EWU in recent years as one of their strongest arguments.

But Livingston is looking to the future. Studies are showing that the enrollment increases will level out in 2008, and he fears that an expansion response to this temporary trend is dangerous.

"There just isn't the marketplace for it," he says.

Mark Anderson, Associate Superintendent of Spokane Public Schools, believes a research-based institute is only viable if the state funds are there.

"Before building anything new," says Anderson, "we have to ask ourselves, 'Do Cheney and Pullman have the resources to grow a combined college program here?' And if not, is the state funding going to cover what the tuition funding is not?"

Columnist Robert Herold at The Inlander, former professor of government at EWU and a proponent of a Spokane State University, is arguing that schools like Portland State University are making a productive impact on the cities, and that Spokane could use the same boost.

But Anderson disagrees.

"Timing-wise, it's not a good moment for expansion," he says. "State funding for higher education is unfortunately limited to the number of seats they'll fill, and right now, the seats are full."

Is there anything that opposing sides agree on?

Yes -- the need for post-secondary technical training in Spokane.

Because surveillance of the job market in Spokane is revealing that construction and technological jobs are the future, the lack of technical training in our city is receiving new attention.

Anderson believes the effective response arises from studying the market trends.

"If you look at the job market of our information-society, having a four-year baccalaureate may not be the best way to go these days," he says. "For at least Spokane, there ought to be some infusion in the post-secondary technical training fields."

Whether this comes in the form of a new university or in the fusing of existing programs is now the question.

"I think it's WSU and EWU having a conversation where they can find their niches," says Livingston. "We need to ask, 'What relationship can exist without duplication? What relationship can exist that ensures we have options for all students?'"

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