100 cc's
-Host tells story of how for decades he and his wife had no connection to Western. Then the went to the
chemistry department and spent about half a day on campus. Re-ignited passion in Western. He “just
keeps feeling good about Western.”
- 3 objectives for evening outlined by host:
1. have a good time
2. entertainment and inspiration
3. Main: Give perspective about Western's need for future
- Understands that Western must change with time to survive
- States that a strong belief in education is the evening's group's commonality
- Some groups represented tonight: Industry, art, native culture
- A good cross-section of community for comments
- Introduces guest
Guest SPEAKS:
 Radical reform of education,
 goal: All students graduate with knowledge and skills for successful lives from K-12 and
beyond
 A good mantra: “our job is to provide the best instructions, no excuses.”
 His group works with science first, and then works on education
 Continuously humbled by difficulty of understanding leanring
 His group may have figured out how to teach, now it is time to employ it.
 Teaching has changed too little since the 1950s.
 Teachers almost always are great; they want the best for kids
 Learned that good training in concepts helps teachers teach. BUT must consider kids who are
not making it.
 Sumas (Nooksack Elementary School): Worked for ten years to teach teachers the “mantra”
(Our job is to provide the best instructions, no excuses)
 Took names of kids who they suspected would fail
 Worked monthly as a community in meetings to help specific failing kids
 10 years ago, the rate of passing a specific exam was only 42%. Now, the passing rate has
become 98%!
 Neah Bay High school. Before, 0 students were passing science WASL (2008), now the school
sees above average test scores
 Each student visits every college in the state during high school
 Middle schools in the area have been observing the high school to learn how to teach
better
 GOAL: building communities to help EACH AND EVERY child.
 Western unites scientists and educators to produce the best teachers for tomorrow with new
mindsets.
 Teachers really learn to teach in the schools
 K-12 and university teaching must be simultaneously remodeled
Host introduces all guests
Host:
 Western and guest’s group are enthusiastic and great to work with
 Introduced guest, mentioning that he founded CST
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Guest:
 Excited to be here
 Perspective on perceived distance from Bellingham would be appreciated
 Many connections with people in room to Western
 Thanked the host. Great supporters and friends
 Purpose of 100 ccs:
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Get into community and figure out what community thinks we should do to
change for future
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Publicly purposed – state support dropped off, must be sensitive to student's and
community needs
- Quick Facts about Western given
- Challenges:
1)
World changing – how do we adapt?
2)
How to get on a more national scene
3)
Public support for higher education drops
4)
increasing population diversity. Reaching new, diverse students
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Rapid technological change. Make students leaders
6)
How to keep up with rest of world
Question:
1) What comes to mind with Western? What do you think about Western? How do you
characterize us?
FLOOR IS OPENED FOR DISCUSSION (each new bullet point is a new speaker)
Manageable campus, as opposed to Seattle. Thankful to have Woodring here (in Port Angeles).
Huge impact. Want more ways for Western to work with Western here.
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Western feels further away than UW. “Our natural connection is with Seattle”
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Too little marketing in Port Angeles?
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Yes. Would be a good idea to increase advertising
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Increases in graduation rates in Port Angeles is requested. They want to make Western seem
accessible (visible) to their students. Don't feel a presence of Western here.
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New community members are unaware of Western satellite schools in Sequim and
Bremerton
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Western should make satellite schools across Washington. All kinds of programs could be
offered. Northern Arizona University would be a nice model
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should we increase distance learning?
By widening reach, all ages and demographics could be reached.
Different ideas than a community college. Four year degrees would be great
Some community colleges are becoming four year colleges. A landscape change to
Western's market. Linkage programs are a possibility.
A continuous community college to university education series should be sought out
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A competition between universities and community colleges should not exist
Western trying to allow more students to transfer and keep more credits
Economics: a large need for jobs. Many people want to improve their education but also
keep the jobs they have got.
Battle- moves good scientists away because of lack of stimulus in Port Angeles
Choice between school and work too often prefers work. People hang onto private sector
jobs. Need opportunities to allow students to work AND learn.
Guest says he changed his mind about distance education. It should be looked at more
closely
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What would you not want to see us lose at WWU?
Bigger schools are not always better. Stay smaller
Universities should revise business model: Concentrate on strengths, not “something for
everybody” approach that killed Ford
We should concentrate on some things
We should specialize and diversify. Arts, science, everything else. Don't lose sense of pride and
community spirit. Export pride and community spirit to Port Angeles. Stay well rounded.
Be well rounded, but not overextended. Smaller institution, needs smaller span.
Need emphasis on community and distance learning communication. Must keep people
connected with teachers.
Huxley has been a community college bridge to college. Outreach IS important.
PLU lets people work here in Port Angeles while getting degrees. Distance learning works
Important to be able to get a B.A. without leaving the community.
MANY ways exist to do distance learning. Makes a huge difference to working students. Need
to trust employees.
Is a virtual campus a threat to WWU?
Guest: most people at WWU don't understand these virtual campuses. University of Phoenix
is a model of a working virtual campus.
Guest: How to convince that virtual campuses are a working teaching method is something we
have to figure out.
A combination of Western online with teachers present would be good
Guest: We have tried this, but it is hard. New technology could make it more possible.
iTV is hard to get used to, but great for distance learning. Bachelors are needed, so distance
learning is NEEDED. However, students must be motivated for this to work.
Guest agreed with this.
We can still get to know each other on line. Discussions online still work, but students must be
motivated.
skype could work
This would be preferable to 300 – 400 student, grad-taught classes
Students today are of a different type. Learn differently.
Motivation is more important: Get them excited about learning. Let them enjoy finding answers
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GUEST: What qualities do we need to most develop?
Critical thinking
Confidence
Lifelong learning
LEADERSHIP
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Students need leadership experience and ethical judgment
Leadership should be interdisciplinary, problem solving.
Being well rounded gives a person better citizenship
Only half of Western's pre-med students are science majors.
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Do NOT lose this.
GUEST: New leadership program – what constitutes leadership?
Leadership comes form wisdom, not knowledge.
Apply wisdom day to day.
Instil in youth the willingness to want to learn post-college
We NEED lifetime learning. If not, people will be left behind. Don't burn students out of the joy
of learning.
GUEST: Engineering and computer science has only 10 – 15% women (sad sounds around
room)
We must appreciate people of difficult backgrounds, online would be most difficult.
GUEST: We try to get more equal men:women ratio in faculty in CST.
GUEST: How will Western lead the community forward?
Start with a mission statement: How much does western want to reflect needs, or direct needs?
GUEST: Universities often most adaptive to societal change, maybe more communication?
GUEST: Always push society forward. Let society do as it may. Creating new knowledge, push
back frontier.
Higher learning vs. trade school?
Development of critical thinking is not very well considered. Teach the same way, need new
critical thinking skills in college.
We now go for good jobs, not rewarding lifestyles
Efforts to be creative had been discouraged. Teaching core knowledge AND creativity are a
must.
Don't dumb down programs just to improve test scores. Involve parents more in education.
GUEST: How can a continually emerging entrepreneurial (support based) spirit help a public
college? What are some dangers in this?
Keep core mission values, state vs. self support will always change. Entrepreneurship keeps
many universities alive. State related, not state supported. Entrepreneurship is inevitable.
GUEST: A big culture change.
This is universal for schools.
By modeling a school entrepreneurially it teaches it. Keep values and be as entrepreneurial as
possible. Be flexible and competitive.
<People agreed that FLEXIBILITY WILL SAVE THE UNIVERSITY>
GUEST: How do we bring more people to WWU from Port Angeles?
Follow up 100ccs on campus
Why does WWU need Port Angeles students? (a question from a community member)
GUEST: We must plan ahead to keep up, so Port Angeles students important in this.
Success should not be measured by the number of applicants a school gets, but instead by the
quality of the education it gives.
Must have inreach and outreach programs
<Tuition considered by group to be fairly cheap>
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Do not become too entrepreneurial, WWU could lose educational focus.
GUEST: We have close faculty-student interactions.
Is education profitable? Or Research? (A question from a community member)
GUEST: We make money for specific research that somewhat costs the university, however
most of research staff is covered by research overhead.
Research becomes less teaching based when hiring non-students
Research is great for teaching AND entrepreneurship.
BREIF OVERVIEW: A major theme during the evening was extending education to Port Angeles. The
community members really appeared to want a form of education that allows people to be educated
while keeping their jobs because they recognize that most people would not leave their jobs to improve
their education. There was debate about how much Western should diversify its teaching content. The
general consensus appeared to be that as a small school, Western should try to focus more on specific
subjects because it would be too easy to overextend itself. Also, more critical thinking and leadership
skills were considered very important. Another central subject was that of the importance of drastic
revision of the entire educational system. People appeared to support the notion of a “publically
purposed university” and thought that entrepreneurship was important to the survival of any college,
especially during this time of financial crisis. However, it was made clear that Western must adhere to
its core mission values in order to keep from being changed too much by an entrepreneurial goal.
Overall, the discussion topics were popular and the event ran long because people continued to speak.
It appeared that everyone was contributing comfortably and equally to the conversation.