Heritage College achieves university status

Moses Lake satellite campus geared toward working students who want a four-year degree

Heritage College is no longer a college, and administrators are glad about that.

The private, nonprofit institution of higher learning, which has a satellite campus at Big Bend Community College, recently received its university accreditation and will now go by the moniker Heritage University.

"We provide a really wonderful education to the students who come here to us," said Mary Ann Simmons, program director for the Moses Lake site of Heritage College. "We're the cheapest private university in the state of Washington."

The change to a university will take place on Aug. 20.

Heritage College was founded in 1981 in Toppenish to meet the demands for a four-year college education in the more rural areas of the state, according to a news release from the college. The satellite campus opened in Moses Lake in 1993 through a cooperative agreement with Big Bend Community College.

Heritage was recently visited by an accreditation team from the state Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, who recommended the upgrade because of Heritage's graduate program and wide variety of undergraduate degrees, Simmons said.

In a news release, Heritage President Kathleen Ross cited the research the institution does for NASA, the National Institutes for Health and the National Science Foundation as proof of Heritage's broader role. Heritage student and faculty also collaborate on joint research projects with the

University of Washington, University of California at Berkley, the USDA Research Station at Prosser and the Stennis Space Center in Mississippi, Ross said.

In Moses Lake, curriculum is designed around students earning a degree while holding down a full-time job, Simmons said. Many of the classes are held after 5:30 p.m. and on the weekends, and the average age of students is 36.

The Moses Lake site has an enrollment of 82 undergraduate students and 63 graduate-level students.

"You can earn a bachelor's degree after work," Simmons said. "It's totally set up for the working person that is place bound."

But the best part about the Heritage's new university status, Simmons said, is that Heritage students will now get credit for doing university work — something they've been doing all along.

Ruth Alvarado, who teaches bilingual education and communications, agreed.

"It's a benefit because they (students) are doing university course work," she said, adding that the university status will attract more students to the area.

Raquel Villasenor, a student who will graduate with a degree in elementary education next year, said the status change will bring her a feeling that she has graduated from a university, and "with it brings prestige."

Armando Castrellon, who is also studying elementary education, had nothing but praise for the school and the change to university status.

"They produce great students. It's a great program, probably the best school I've been to," he said. "They produce a university-type education, and it's great they're finally getting the recognition of a university-type school."