Republican Senate leader’s bill would convert The Evergreen State College into a UW campus
The Evergreen State College would be abolished — then transformed — under a piece of legislation introduced last week to Washington state lawmakers.
Senate Republican Leader John Braun sponsored the proposed seismic shift, which would turn Olympia’s public liberal arts college into a new University of Washington “Health Sciences Campus,” effective July 1, 2026.
The bill, Braun said, is aimed at alleviating the mounting health-care workforce shortage.
Braun argues that Evergreen — which was founded in 1967 with an interdisciplinary undergraduate curriculum in which students have the option to design their own study — isn’t the school it once was. The college’s student enrollment has significantly slumped since its zenith in 2009 through 2011, when it had nearly 5,000 students, he said.
The college reported an enrollment of about 2,500 this past fall, up about 8% over the previous fall.
The Centralia Republican told McClatchy that Evergreen is an important part of the community. At the same time, there’s a dire need for more health care professionals.
“I think there’s a lot of things that are good about this,” Braun said of Senate Bill 5424. “We can honor the groundbreaking history of the current Evergreen State [College] by adapting to the current demands of our population, our state today.”
Braun’s bill would reroute state resources toward producing “the intermediate health-care workers needed to respond to the ‘Silver Tsunami’ of people whose medical needs are expected to overwhelm the current capacity of Washington’s health-care system,” as noted in a Jan. 21 news release. That includes registered nurses, licensed practical nurses, paramedics, nurse practitioners, physician assistants and allied health professionals.
McClatchy reached out to The Evergreen State College’s media-relations department seeking comment.
“Evergreen’s Board of Trustees by practice speaks through its public meetings,” replied Genevieve Canceko Chan. The college’s next public board meeting is scheduled for March 6. Chan said the bill isn’t expected to appear as an agenda topic.
In a later email, Chan pointed out that as of Wednesday, no hearing date has been set for Braun’s bill: “So, currently we have no comment.” She also noted that enrollment at Evergreen has increased over the past three years, particularly for undergraduates.
The way Braun sees it, the suggested transformation would be a sound investment in the well-being of Washingtonians and the state’s health-care system. With enrollment not what it once was, he said, Evergreen has “become very expensive,” especially in a year when the state is facing significant spending challenges.
“We can’t afford to have a single university that’s not performing at the level of the other ones,” Braun said. “At the same time, it would be hard to find anyone in our state that hasn’t been challenged by medical issues — whether it’s access or affordability. We need to do something.”
He added: “This is, I think, an innovative way to use existing capacity — rebuild and repurpose it to deliver something that’s badly needed right now.”
SB 5424 would:
Transfer the retired Evergreen college’s property and powers to the University of Washington for the new “UW Health Sciences Campus.”
Work to immediately appoint a chancellor to lead the new institution. UW would also need to seek out permanent leadership.
Mandate a review of former Evergreen programs. Ones that don’t gel with the new school’s mission would be phased out by 2030.
Launch the creation of a coordinating council of health-care, community and business leaders to hammer out the institution’s strategic direction.
Require the board of regents to come up with a financial-sustainability plan, to be submitted for legislative review by summer 2028.
Calls on the board to adopt a policy granting equivalencies or credit for courses earned at Evergreen.
Braun’s legislation has been assigned to the upper chamber’s Higher Education and Workforce Development Committee.
This story was originally published January 30, 2025 at 5:00 AM.
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