Administration
One of six state-funded, four-year institutions of higher education in Washington, WWU operates on a September-to-June academic year (quarter system) with six- and nine-week summer sessions. Dr. Bruce Shepard is Western’s 13th president.
Location
Situated in Bellingham, 90 miles north of Seattle and 50 miles south of Vancouver, B.C., Western is within walking distance of Bellingham Bay and just over an hour’s drive from the ski area on 10,778-foot Mount Baker.
History
On Feb. 24, 1893, Gov. John H. McGraw signed legislation creating New Whatcom Normal School. The first class of 88 students entered in 1899. Western is now the third-largest institution of higher education in the state. The Normal School became Western Washington College of Education in 1937 and Western Washington State College in 1961. Western achieved university status in 1977.
Campus
Western, with its residential campus, houses roughly a third of its students in 15 residence halls. The 215-acre campus includes the studentfunded Wade King Recreation Center and the 180-acre Sehome Arboretum, operated jointly with the city of Bellingham. Western’s Shannon Point Marine Center, located on a wooded 87-acre campus in Anacortes, provides a base for nationally recognized marine research and instruction. Western also has a 15-acre student/university facility at nearby Lake Whatcom. Woodring College of Education, Huxley College of the Environment and University Extended Education and Summer Programs offer classes and certificate and degree programs in Bremerton, Everett, Port Angeles and Seattle. Work is under way to include WWU in Bellingham’s waterfront redevelopment.
Academic Organization
For the past four decades, the university has taken special pride in the quality of liberal arts programs required of all students. Academic divisions at Western are the College of Business and Economics, Fairhaven College of Interdisciplinary Studies, the College of Fine and Performing Arts, the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Huxley College of the Environment, the College of Sciences and Technology, Woodring College of Education and the Graduate School. U.S. News & World Report ranked Western as the top public master’s granting university in the Pacific Northwest and third in the West, a region stretching from the Pacific Ocean to Texas. Western ranks 19th among all public and private universities in its class regionally.
Tuition
Resident undergraduate tuition and fees are $6,159 for three quarters at Western.
Budget
Western’s 2010 state operating budget is $127,799,029, funded by state appropriations and tuition revenue through June 30, 2010. Tuition funds about 50 percent of the 2010 operating budget; about 43 percent is from state appropriations and 7 percent is federal economic stimulus funding.
Students
Fall 2009 enrollment included 14,575 full- and part-time students. Western has 2,688 new firstyear students and 788 new undergraduate transfer students. About 84 percent of 2008 freshmen returned for 2009, and about 71 percent of students who start at Western graduate. WWU is among the most selective public universities in the Pacific Northwest; the middle 50 percent of new freshmen have high school GPAs of 3.3 to 3.73. About 92 percent of students come from Washington state, particularly King, Snohomish, Whatcom, and Pierce counties. The university has students from 45 other states, led by Alaska, California, Oregon and Colorado, and from 39 other nations, led by Japan, Canada, South Korea, Taiwan and China. Students of color comprise 18.7 percent of the total student body. For a map of where WWU students come from, click here.
Faculty
As of fall 2009, the university employed 729 faculty, or about 619 full-time-equivalent faculty members. Of the 500 faculty members employed full time, 89.8 percent have terminal degrees. The fall 2009 student-faculty ratio is 19.02-to-1.
Athletics
A full member of NCAA Division II for 11 years, Western ranked 10th of nearly 300 NCAA II schools in the 2008-09 Sports Directors’ Cup standings. About 300 students compete each year. Western has made NCAA II national appearances in all but one of its 15 intercollegiate sports, which include men’s and women’s basketball, cross country, golf, soccer, and indoor and outdoor track and field, as well as women’s rowing, softball and volleyball. The Vikings have won the last five NCAA II National Championships (2005, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009) in women’s rowing, becoming the first school in any NCAA rowing division to accomplish that feat. Western placed second nationally in volleyball in 2007 and women’s rowing in 2002 and 2003. A member of the Great Northwest Athletic Conference, Western has won five All-Sports Championships in the eight-year history of the league (2001-02, 2002-03, 2003-04, 2004-05, 2008-09) and placed second the other years. In women’s basketball, Western ranks among the top 15 in victories among all four-year schools. The Vikings had the fourth-longest league winning streak in NCAA II volleyball of 57 from 2002-04.
Alumni
More than 101,000 graduates live in Washington state and throughout the world. For a map of where WWU alumni live, click here.
The institutional profile is updated once a year, during fall quarter. For a PDF version, click here.
If you have comments or suggestions, e-mail us at news@wwu.edu.
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