PULLMAN, Wash. — Washington State University’s Board of Regents today authorized the statewide delivery of a bachelor’s degree in business administration through the use of distance education technologies.
Provost Gretchen M. Bataille said the WSU classes are the first to be offered through a developing consortium of the state’s baccalaureate schools. Over time and as other members of the consortium become full participants, the program will be available throughout the state via the K-20 educational communications network, the Internet and other distance learning technologies, she said.
Currently the WSU College of Business is offering two courses using telecommunications networks and computers. Eventually six upper-division classes in the degree sequence will be available each semester from WSU.
Regents also approved several new degree programs at the branch campuses, including four at WSU Spokane. Master’s degrees in interior design and architecture, currently available on the Pullman campus, are being extended to Spokane. A master’s degree in landscape architecture, being offered in partnership with the University Idaho, also is approved in Pullman and Spokane. A master’s degree program in technology management received regents’ approval for delivery at the Pullman, Spokane, Tri-Cities and Vancouver campuses and at Boeing plants in Seattle and Everett.
WSU Vancouver was authorized to grant bachelor’s degrees in public affairs, a program which will complement its existing master’s degree in the field.
In other action, regents delegated authority to the university administration to select a general contractor/construction manager for the $39 million Health Sciences Building for the WSU Spokane Riverpoint campus. The GC/CM design services bids are to be opened Sept. 11. Construction on the project is expected to begin in the fall of 1999 and completed in two years.
Authority was also extended to the administration to select a consulting firm and proceed with preliminary designs for a new $1.54 million creamery warehouse on the Pullman campus.
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