WSU Vancouver seeks volcano observatory

Sun., Nov. 9, 2008

By Erik Robinson (Vancouver, Wash.) Columbian

University officials and government scientists are continuing to explore the possibility of moving the U.S. Geological Survey’s Cascades Volcano Observatory onto the campus of Washington State University Vancouver.

Everyone seems to agree that university researchers and government scientists are a good fit. However, it’s been much more difficult to find the money necessary to make it happen. Scientists and university officials have been discussing the possibility of moving the USGS outpost from office space leased in an east Vancouver business park to WSU’s campus in Salmon Creek for about a year.

“It’s a tremendous opportunity to find a permanent home in Vancouver,” said Cynthia Gardner, scientist in charge of the USGS in Vancouver.

A new building on campus would be expensive – roughly $20 million, officials said – but proponents argue it would lend considerable prestige to the school’s science program while enhancing research partnerships already under way. University officials said it could also jump-start new academic disciplines for the fledgling branch campus, which was established in 1996.

“It means that we have increased opportunities to have those folks teach courses for us, and it increases opportunities for our students to work on projects with our faculty and the CVO,” said Hal Dengerink, the WSU Vancouver chancellor.

U.S. Rep. Brian Baird, a Vancouver Democrat who chairs the House Subcommittee on Research and Science Education, endorsed the idea but cautioned supporters that the federal budget is going to be tight.

The USGS first established a presence in Vancouver in the months before the 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens.

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