Published September 2005

Four-year college goal
a vision for Stephanson

Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson has a vision of a public, state funded four-year college campus in north Snohomish County by 2015. He wants it to emphasize math, science and engineering, while also offering business and liberal-arts degrees.

“I would be ecstatic if we were under construction in five years,” Stephanson said at an August meeting with the state’s Higher Education Coordinating Board.

As an important first step, the board named a 13-member committee to study the possibility of a four-year public university to serve Snohomish, Island and Skagit counties.

Members include Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett; Everett Mayor Ray Stephanson; Carol Nelson, president and CEO, Cascade Bank, Everett; Snohomish County Executive Aaron Reardon; Rep. Hans Dunshee, D-Snohomish; Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island; Sen. Rosemary McAuliffe, D-Bothell; Sen. Dave Schmidt, R-Bothell; Mike Shelton, Island County commissioner; Sharon Hart, executive director of the Island County Economic Development Council; Rep. Chris Strow, R-Oak Harbor; Ken Dahlstedt, Skagit County commissioner; and Don Wick, executive director of the Economic Development Association of Skagit County.

When the advisory board meets at 1:30 p.m. Sept. 7 in Room 126 of Everett Community College’s Olympus Hall it will be an historic opportunity to begin making that vision a reality, for the benefit of the entire county.

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