Olympia…In a remarkable sign of community support to transform Washington State University’s Tri-Cities campus into a four-year college, 10 leaders from the region arrived in Olympia early this morning to testify on the issue before the Senate Early Learning, K-12 and Higher Education Committee.

“What a great turnout and what a great demonstration of how unified the Tri-Cities are in support of this expansion,” said Sen. Jerome Delvin, R-Richland. Delvin is prime sponsor of SB 6464.

Lura Powell, president of Advanced Imaging Technologies, talked about the “actively developing medical cluster” in the region. “We need the type of workforce this collaboration will bring about in order to develop our companies and our economy,” Powell said.

Kris Johnson, CEO and president of the Tri-City Chamber of Commerce, said the initiative “is about leveraging our community assets,” at WSU-Tri-Cities, Columbia Basin College and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. He said the Tri-Cities model also is something that can be replicated around the state.

Frank Armijo of Lockheed Martin said Lockheed is a growing company in Washington that needs employees with higher education. “This is a critical step in us being able to carry out our vision for enhanced education for our region,” Armijo said.

Columbia Basin College President Lee Thornton said CBC and WSU would continue to work closely together, providing innovative co-admission, co-enrollment and program options.

Delvin said that while support in the Legislature for the WSU expansion has been growing at lightning speed, “We still have a lot of work to do, and it was incredibly important for the public and private sector leadership of the Tri-Cities to speak so enthusiastically and with one voice today.”