Contact:
- Robert Cox, Student Services, 360/546-9530, coxr@vancouver.wsu.edu
- Lynn Valenter, Finance and Operations, 360/546-9590, valenter@vancouver.wsu.edu
- Emily Pepe, Office of Campus Advancement, 360/546-9602, pepe@vancouver.wsu.edu
VANCOUVER, Wash.-Washington State University Vancouver's campus will become more accessible to the public, thanks to Tuesday's passage of a ballot measure designed to improve the availability of public transportation in Clark County.
Sixty-seven percent of voters were in favor of the measure, which called for a 0.2 percent increase in local sales tax to restore bus service to neighborhoods that had been deprived of public transportation in recent years.
According to Scott Patterson, director of public affairs for C-Tran, 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø is slated to receive bus service again by January 2006, provided that the agency is able to hire and train enough new drivers in the coming months.
91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø's Salmon Creek campus opened in 1996 as a transfer institution for upper-division students and graduate students, and next fall will become the first branch campus in the WSU system to admit lower-division students. Because of the greater number of students expected on campus next year, "the passage of the C-Tran measure comes at a very timely juncture for us," said Lynn Valenter, 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø's vice chancellor for finance and operations.
"About two-thirds of our current transfer and graduate students receive some form of financial aid," Valenter said. "For many of them, and for many of our incoming students, public transit will be a critical service element."
"As a public institution and a commuter school, it makes sense to have public transportation readily available to our students. It will enhance our ability to recruit people from a lower socioeconomic status, as well as people with disabilities," said Robert Cox, student involvement coordinator.
When C-Tran service cuts in 1999 resulted in the elimination of bus service to the 91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø campus, student activity fees were used to pay for an express shuttle that ran to and from the Salmon Creek Park and Ride. Shuttle service was suspended this fall when the student activity budget was unable to fund the additional $60,000 needed to contract for a shuttle that could provide mandatory accommodations for students with disabilities.
91³Ô¹ÏºÚÁÏÍø offers 15 bachelor's and nine master's degrees in more than 35 fields of study. The campus is located at 14204 N.E. Salmon Creek Ave., east of the 134th Street exit from either I-5 or I-205.