Kick-off for WSUV tech building

New classroom facility also unveiled at last week's event

BY PAUL LEONARD of the VBJ

The campus at Washington State University Vancouver got a little bit bigger last week - thanks to a lot of help from its friends.

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Local business leaders, school administrators and elected representatives were on hand for the Aug. 19 unveiling of the just-completed Undergraduate Classroom building, as well as the groundbreaking of a new $43.5 million Applied Technology facility.

Attendees at last week's event billed the 20-year-old satellite university's expansion as part of a larger effort to attract talented students to help fuel the region's vital tech sector.

"It will be a long, long, long recovery," said state Rep. Tim Probst (D-East Vancouver) at the school's campus in Salmon Creek. "We want the best jobs, the best companies here because we have the best-educated workforce."

The four-story technology facility includes 56,000 square feet of laboratory and classroom space for a new electrical engineering program. Construction of the building, headed by Portland-based Hoffman, is expected to be completed by 2011.

Together with the completed Undergraduate Classroom building, the two facilities will supply an additional 112,000 square feet of classroom space - just in time to house an increasing number of students enrolled in WSUV's bachelor's and master's degree programs.

Local elected representatives fought hard to secure $26.7 million of the cost of the Applied Technology building during incredibly tight budget negotiations in Olympia.

"In this budget year... to get a project of this magnitude is quite the accomplishment," said Rep. Jim Jacks (D-Vancouver).