business backgrounder | employment & workplace
No Dorms, No Problem
WGU Washington goes online to give working
students lower cost college options.
Jason Hagey
A look at WGU Washington, the only state-endorsed
online nonprofit university. It’s on a mission to
increase the number of college graduates in the
state, and reduce the need for employers look out of
state for qualified workers.
Jean Floten, chancellor for WGU Washington
Josie Meyer had a full-time job at Bates Technical College in Tacoma, but without a four-year degree she also
had limited chances for advancement.
She wanted to go back to school, but wondered how
she could find the time in between working full-time
and raising a family that included a new baby.
The solution, it turned out, was Western Governors
University.
Meyer first heard
about the school from one
of the deans at Bates, and
WGU Washington:
after investing some time
washington.wgu.edu
researching online universities, she decided to enroll.
Four years later, she
at a glance
graduated with a Bachelor of
Science degree in business
administration and moved
Western Governors University
into a new job at Bates, one
was chartered in 1996 after a
that requires a degree.
bipartisan meeting of the Western
“I can’t say enough posiGovernors Association.
tive about the people at
WGU,” said Meyer, 41, a
It began accepting students in
self-proclaimed ambassa1999 and has grown into a national
dor for the school. “They
university, with more than 30,000
just are perfect for people
students served from all 50 states.
in my demographic who are
Last year, the Washington state
already committed to work.”
Legislature agreed to a partnership
that made its subsidiary, WGU
Washington, Washington’s only stateendorsed online nonprofit university.
48 association of washington business
heard about it until recently. It was chartered in 1996
after a bipartisan meeting of the Western Governors
Association. The chairman of the association, Utah Gov.
Mike Leavitt, wanted to use distance learning technology to increase access to public funds for education. So
the governors decided to create their own university.
It began accepting students in 1999 and has grown
into a national university, with more than 30,000 students served from all 50 states.
Last year, the Washington state Legislature agreed
to a partnership that made its subsidiary, WGU Washington, Washington’s only state-endorsed online
nonprofit university.
The school has been working to raise its profile since
then, partly through a quirky television ad campaign
featuring its one-and-only billboard — located first
in Ephrata and then mounted on a truck and driven
around the state — and partly by sending its chancellor,
Jean Floten, on the road.
Floten, who met earlier this year with AWB’s
executive board, talks passionately about how Washington’s higher education system is failing to keep
pace with demand for educated workers, and how
this impacts employers, who are forced to hire people from out of state.
“That’s a lost opportunity for Washington,” she said.
The school is hoping to reverse the trend, Floten
said, by making higher education more flexible and
more affordable for working adults.
have you seen the
billboard?
flexible & affordable
Western Governors University has been around for a
while, but you may not have
One of the ways WGU is doing that i