Riverpoint Opens Its Campus WSU Hosts 10Th Anniversary Of Riverpoint Education Park

Scholars would like to think that there’s a higher purpose to attending college than mixing glue and Borax into home made Silly Putty.

But 9-year-old Chrystan Young said that was reason enough Saturday to visit the Washington State University Spokane campus.

“It’s called gak,” the perky blonde said, kneading a mound of ocean-blue putty that WSU officials helped her concoct. “Want some?”

With fall semester approaching, WSU officials used the 10th anniversary of the branch campus as an excuse to show off academic programs offered at the Riverpoint Higher Education Park.

Last year, the university took over management of the 48-acre campus, which is sandwiched east of downtown between the Spokane River and Trent Avenue.

Professors lectured to adults about aging and community health, while kids shot baskets, ate hot dogs and built Lincoln Log cabins big enough to play in. Butch, the Cougar mascot, posed for pictures as architecture associate professor Doug Menzies explained the finer points of the log cabin, on loan from the Children’s Museum.

“When they take the roof off, the walls will fall down,” Menzies said as two boys dismantled the structure. “My job here is to help the kids learn about construction while their parents learn about WSU.”

Last month, WSU Spokane graduated 264 students in nursing, pharmacy, speech and hearing, construction management, architecture and other fields.

WSU Spokane’s enrollment of more than 400 students is one-third the attendance at Eastern Washington University classes in Riverpoint classrooms. But WSU has been charged by the state to expand its upper-division and graduate programs in the future to help educate greater numbers of Spokane residents, increase the skilled work force and boost the economy.

Lawmakers earlier this year released $36.3 million to build a new health sciences building at Riverpoint.

“It’s a good time to highlight our programs as people are making decisions about fall classes,” said WSU spokeswoman Barbara Chamberlain, one of an army of Cougar staff workers in crimson shirts who organized the anniversary celebration.

The challenge to success at Riverpoint, a commuter campus, was reflected in the modest turnout for the party.

By late morning, a band was playing to an audience of one as the thin crowd sifted through booths and talked to financial aid officers.

Young’s mother, Chrystal Young, said she’s been attending Eastern for years, because it was less expensive and offered more liberal arts classes. But she has hopes for her daughter to become a Cougar.

“We go to all the football games, and the kids have the colors,” Young said as Chrystan ran off to sink a basket.

“I want her to go to WSU.”