Central Washington University is bringing its bachelor’s degree program in computer science to Highline’s campus beginning next quarter. 

The program has been co-developed by CWU and Highline. There will be a soft launch in Winter Quarter 2022 and a full launch in Fall Quarter 2022, CWU officials say.

Bruce Palmquist, Ph.D., interim chair of the Computer Science Department at CWU, said the program has been designed for students who are seeking careers in that field.

“Central has a reputation for making students engaged in the program,” Dr. Palmquist said.

Central has students from all disciplines and all levels of success get engaged in learning, whether it’s through a club or through undergraduate research, he said.

“Central sponsors something called SOURCE, which is an acronym for Symposium of University Research and Creative Expression. SOURCE, in general, can be research-based or project-based,” Dr. Palmquist said. 

“We have SOURCE on Ellenburg campus and we started doing SOURCE at CWU at Highline campus in recent years,” he said.

“We are trying to promote SOURCE to our computer science program. Students do a project and all computer science majors do a capstone project and then they present their capstone projects at SOURCE,” Dr. Palmquist said.

“The increased chance in student engagement is one thing that stands out compared to a lot of other places,” he said.

Dr. Palmquist said the university has worked to build relationships with local firms to help students get internships. 

“We have the new opportunity for the Ellensburg student to do the virtual internship, so clearly, it’s a virtual internship, and students can do it anywhere,” he said.

In Ellensburg, CWU works with local companies. There are many small and nonprofit businesses in King County that have issues that can be solved with the software, but they don’t have the expertise or the money to do that, he said. But Central students have the expertise, if it’s part of the class, they don’t need to be paid and it’s a learning experience for them, he said.

“It’s a win-win situation. We haven’t had the system in place yet but we have a lot of people who know how to do that sort of things, know how to reach companies,” Dr. Palmquist said.

“It’s oftentimes the small businesses that have the biggest needs. Big companies have a lot of resources and small companies have a lot of needs. Therefore, we want to work with both ends of the spectrum,” Dr. Palmquist said.

Google and Microsoft are going to hire a lot of people. Students who have already worked at small companies would be more attractive those employers, Dr. Palmquist said.

“We know that students don’t want to necessarily drive to campus five days a week and sit there four hours at a time but we also know that students don’t want to sit in front of their computers all the time either, so there needs to be some community involvement, students and faculty involved together, and some flexibilities involved,” he said.

“There will be some classes offered online by professors that live and work in Ellensburg and the two professors at CWU Des Moines, they will occasionally teach classes that are fully online. That’s a good way for faculty members to work together,” Dr. Palmquist said.

It’s important for students at the university center to interact with students at Ellensburg, he said.

“There are some similarities and some differences between the Ellensburg and the Des Moines campus. The biggest difference, that Des Moines will have a specific class, and students will march through these classes,” Dr. Palmquist said.

“We plan the courses to be in the order that works well for the student and will have seats for the students available,” he said.

Dr. Palmquist introduced a program that is integrated along with the computer science program to assist students to transfer in a more gradual process.

“We also have a program called Early Transfer Admission Plus. This new program will blur the line between what is a Highline student and what is a Central student. We don’t want you to be a computer science student at Highline, and all of a sudden, magically become a student at Central. We want the Highline students to participate in the Early Transfer Admission Plus,” Dr. Palmquist said.

Kurt Ikemeier, who has been with Central Washington University for four years as the regional director for the Des Moines campus, said the new degree was developed at the urging of local firms that need more computer-smart employees. 

“The program was initiated by the needs of our local businesses such as Microsoft, Boeing, Amazon,” he said. 

The state Legislature provided funding for the program as a partnership between Central and Highline.   

“There are a lot of things to do,” Ikemeier said. “We are going to actually build out a new computer science lab that is co-branded with Highline and Central. It’s really answering the needs in the business world in computer science.”

“I think it’s a wonderful example of two colleges coming together to fill the need and the void in the employment world. It’s pretty local based. It’s really started with Microsoft, Boeing, and Amazon really reaching out and  sending a message that they need computer science majors,” Ikemeier said.

Ikemeier expressed his excitement on the current and future relationship between both institutions. “Both institutions are very excited about it. Both presidents are fully on board and supporting this idea,” he said.