| WSU Cooperative Extension will add three new WSU Learning Centers to the eight currently in operation. Like the existing Centers, the new Learning Centers will focus on increasing access to higher education degrees for adult students, providing “on the ground” student support services and working with partnering community colleges to enhance continuing education opportunities for place bound professionals.
The new WSU Learning Centers are in the final stages of hiring program coordinators and will be fully operational early in the Spring of 2000. The learning centers will be located at:
- Grays Harbor College (GHC) and will serve the counties of Pacific and Grays Harbor
- Walla Walla College (WWCC) and will serve the counties of Asotin, Garfield, Columbia and Walla Walla
- Skagit Valley College (SVC) and will serve the counties of Island, San Juan and Skagit.
Joe Kropf will act as the faculty lead for the GHC learning center. Mike Hackett will be the faculty lead for the SVC learning center. Walt Gary and Marlene Garrison will be co-faculty leads for the WWCC learning center. With the addition of the new centers, a total of twenty Washington counties will be served by WSU Learning Centers.
The new WSU Learning Centers will provided student recruitment and support for five Washington State University extended degrees. The Human Development and General Agriculture extended degrees will originate from the College of Agriculture and Home Economics. Also available through the learning centers will be a multi-institutional Business degree led by WSU College of Business and Economics, a multi-institutional Criminal Justice degree led by the WSU College of Liberal Arts. An extended degree in Social Sciences will also be available from the WSU College of Liberal Arts.
Beyond the WSU extended degrees, the new learning centers will pursue offering other WSU degrees suited to the interests of people in the area. By way of example, the WSU Learning Center at GHC will support the offering of a K-8 Teacher Education Degree from the WSU College of Education. Other degrees to be explored by the new learning centers include nursing, engineering and degree/certificate options from WSU branch campuses.
For further information on WSU Learning Centers and the programs offered at the existing learning centers you can visit them through their web sites. They are linked to from the CAHE home-page at <http://www.cahe.wsu.edu> and from the WSU Cooperative Extension page at <http://ext.wsu.edu>.
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