Ewu Backers Question Call For Retreat College Needs To Stay Near Spokane To Bolster Enrollment, Supporters Say

If Eastern Washington University’s problems spring from too few students, why are experts so eager to push the school out of Spokane, where the largest pool of prospective students live?

That’s a question puzzling Jonathan Ferraiuolo, chief executive officer of Pacific Holding Corp., and other Eastern supporters.

“The (lawmakers) realized the problem was too big, so they sidestepped it,” Ferraiuolo said. “It blows my mind that everybody has lost sight of the problem.”

The Higher Education Coordinating Board has recommended a review of programs in Spokane, with Eastern moving some or all of its offerings back to the Cheney campus. The recommendations would give Washington State University control over upper-division and graduate programs offered in Spokane.

It also would appoint an outside chief executive to manage Eastern, a move that Eastern’s board of trustees oppose.

The HEC Board, a nine-member citizens’ panel, meets in Spokane today and Friday to vote on the recommendations.

If adopted, the plan would force Eastern, with its 6,900 full-time students - including 1,300 in downtown Spokane - to focus on its traditional role as a four-year regional university.

It also would open the way for WSU to expand courses and research in Spokane, its smallest branch campus with 280 full-time students. The university lists about two dozen degrees that it has considered adding in Spokane, though there is no requirement that it add them.

The recommendations likely would not fix Eastern’s enrollment decline. If anything, the plan would shrink enrollment further as Eastern narrows its mission, said Sen. Jim West, R-Spokane.

West is co-author of Senate Bill 6717, which is making its way through the Legislature. The bill is the vehicle that lawmakers expect to use to make changes in Spokane higher education.

West said an earlier proposal to merge WSU and Eastern would have solved Eastern’s enrollment problem.

Because Eastern resisted that, he said, the best alternative is to let an independent group study Spokane’s needs and determine where Eastern should direct its efforts.

“Shouldn’t we ask ourselves if growth is the best goal?,” West said. “Perhaps (Eastern) should only be 5,000 to 6,000 students. What’s wrong with that if that fulfills their mission, whatever that may be?”

Many Eastern supporters don’t trust West or WSU. They believe WSU has engineered a movement to evict Eastern from downtown Spokane and convert the students to the Cougars.

“We don’t see this benefiting us at all,” said Stefanie Pettit, public information officer for Eastern. “It only benefits WSU.”

Lessening Eastern’s presence in Spokane could confound the administration, which is under orders from the Legislature to boost enrollment by 800 students or lose $3.2 million in tax dollars.

Eastern draws nearly six out of 10 students from Spokane, officials said. Roughly 4,000 of its 7,000 full-time students commute from Spokane to take classes in Cheney.

“It would be a mistake to back away from the two-campus system,” Stamats Communications Inc. said in a 190-page marketing report to Eastern last year. The Iowa consulting firm urged officials to beef up the university’s presence in Spokane to “meet the needs of prospective students.”

Eastern supporters also question how the recommendations would fulfill the state’s drive to provide all citizens, regardless of economic status, access to quality higher education.

WSU undergraduate tuition is $800 higher than Eastern’s. And Eastern’s classes in downtown Spokane are closer and more convenient to students than those in Cheney.

West argues that Eastern will not lose those students because they will continue to choose the lowest-cost school.

Eastern faculty also worry that WSU, which has a history of offering video classes in Spokane, would not maintain Eastern’s quality of instruction.

“Returning Eastern to Cheney would be a scorched-earth policy, with burned grass and empty barns left to sit for a long, long time,” said Steve Simmons, a computer science professor at the Riverpoint Higher Education Park.

Bill Gray, dean of WSU-Spokane, promised that the school would not replace Eastern teachers with “TV programs” or teaching assistants. WSU employs 66 full-time teachers in Spokane and would add more, if necessary, he said.

“We are as concerned as anybody about not leaving students stranded,” Gray said.

“The HEC Board is in the driver’s seat on this. But if WSU is asked to assume additional responsibilities, we’ll do it with vigor.”

, DataTimes MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: What’s next The Higher Education Coordinating Board will take public comment at 3 p.m. today at the Spokane Intercollegiate Research & Technology Institute, North Riverpoint Boulevard and East Trent.