New center will offer 4-year degrees at BCC

Starting this fall, students at Bellevue Community College will be able to earn a four-year degree from Eastern Washington University through a new university center being created on the Bellevue college campus.

The deal between BCC and EWU, announced yesterday and set to be finalized Friday, will provide a new option for Puget Sound-area students who want to earn a university degree from a public school other than the University of Washington without leaving the region.

The program is nicknamed a "2+2" degree, meaning that a student will take the first two years through BCC then complete his or her bachelor's degree by taking junior- and senior-level classes under the auspices of EWU, but on the BCC campus.

Students at BCC initially will be able to choose from two EWU degree programs: business administration and early-childhood education

"This agreement is one good way to help solve Washington's capacity crisis in higher education," said BCC President Jean Floten.

The state Higher Education Coordinating Board has estimated that universities and community colleges will have to add 33,000 new slots by 2010 to keep up with demand.

BCC already offers two other "2+2" degrees in conjunction with EWU: one in computer network service, maintenance and support; and the other in interdisciplinary studies with a focus on social and behavioral sciences.

But the newest degrees are different because they will be funneled through the new university center, being set up in a leased building on the BCC campus. The office will serve as EWU's regional headquarters (the main campus is in Cheney, Spokane County) and will give students a physical connection to the university. An outreach coordinator will help students adjust.

The center is "a crucial expansion of Eastern's presence in Western Washington," said Dr. Stephen Jordan, EWU president. The university also offers courses at Shoreline and South Seattle community colleges and at the Everett Higher Education Center.

Enrollment at the BCC center is expected to reach 500 within a few years, and students will have to pay slightly higher fees than those at the main EWU campus, Floten said.

Details are still being worked out, and both schools' boards are expected to formally approve the deal Friday.

The new university center will join a handful of others around the state serving as a first step in a longer-term effort to bring bachelor's degrees closer to students.

The centers — which include the one planned at BCC and others at Pierce College, Highline Community College and Edmonds Community College — rely on carefully nurtured partnerships between the two- and four-year schools, and a willingness on the university's part to divert some of its resources to the college campus.

A bill in the state Legislature would step the concept up a notch by creating a pilot program for three community and technical colleges.

The program would allow colleges to get funding directly from the state to contract with four-year universities for degree programs. It would put the power, and money, to offer bachelor's degrees in the hands of two-year schools, rather than forcing them to wait for a four-year school to volunteer.

"Many community- and technical-college students are place-bound: They work where they live and they can't just pick up and move somewhere else to live in a dorm," said Suzy Ames, communications director for the state Board for Community and Technical Colleges, which has documented the dramatic need for new two- and four-year college seats around the state.

Other students might have good grades but find the competition to get into the program of their choice too tough, or the tuition too high, at their local university campus, she said.

Serving more than 35,000 students per year, Bellevue Community College is the third-largest institution of higher learning in the state. The school is searching for new ways to offer more options to more students as the so-called "baby-boom echo" — the wave of high-school graduates heading for the state's colleges and universities — approaches, Floten said.

She hopes that the new university center will soon expand its offerings, and that a change in state law will allow BCC to pursue four-year degree programs that are in high demand by its students but which aren't available at many — or any — other Washington schools, such as a medical-imaging degree.

"We have to try in every way we can to bring education to the people," she said.

Natalie Singer: 206-464-2704 or nsinger@seattletimes.com