Snapshots from the past

As WSU Vancouver students move into a new year, The VanCougar wanted to reflect on the campus’ history. We sat down with WSU Vancouver archivist and alumni, Robert Schimelpfenig for a campus history lesson, decorated with images from the infancy of WSU Vancouver.

According Schimelpfenig, the land that the campus is on now used to belong to a man named Roy Darling. Darling was looking to sell the property, which at the time was a dairy farm, and WSU was looking to move from the Clark College campus and expand. When WSU Vancouver was at Clark College it was located in just one building called Bauer Hall, which is still there today.

Schimelpfenig said “It was extremely overcrowded [in Bauer Hall]. People shared office space and closets were sometimes being used to sell cougar gear.”

Once ground broke in Vancouver for the WSU branch campus, the five original buildings included the Library Building, the Classroom building, the Dengerink Administration Building, the Physical Plant Building and the Firstenburg Student Commons (FSC). According to Schimelpfenig, the FSC used to be the Bookie when it first opened.

As time moved on, the campus grew. The next building that was added was the McCleary building and, according to Schimelpfenig, this building has always been where the daycare is. After McCleary’s construction the Science and Engineering Building, near the orange lot, was added, followed by the Multimedia Building.

One of the first five building’s on campus, today, the Library building houses more than just books; it now has the Writing Center and classrooms as well.

“Back when the Library building was built, they originally had designed it for the Library to take up both stories, but it was needed for classrooms as the campus enrollment got larger. The offices upstairs were also different and this was before we had the writing center,” Schimelpfenig said.

“I am not saying we have a bat problem or anything, but it is now kind of a running joke around here.”

Robert Schimelpfenig, WSU Vancouver archivist and alumni.

Every once in awhile, typically when there is a renovation, Schimelpfenig said there has been sightings of bats in the Library.

“I am not saying we have a bat problem or anything, but it is now kind of a running joke around here,” said Schimelpfenig.

The Dengerink Administration building used to be mostly student services. “They always had administration upstairs and they shared upstairs with Student Services.  Admissions was where Human Resources is now and the Cafeteria was always there,” Schimelpfenig explained.

Now, similar to the Library, the Classroom building holds more than just classrooms. The public safety office, Student Wellness Center and the Veterans Center are all under the Classroom building’s roof. This building also houses computer labs and the Carson College of Business.

Schimelpfenig explained the building’s history, saying how “WHETS, Washington Higher Education Telecommunication Systems, was in here [the Classroom building], and it was one of the major things for WSU Vancouver at the time.” He added how this meant the campus was able to “telecast courses that were being taught in Pullman to here [Vancouver], before the internet. Now they have Academic Media Services (AMS), which is similar to WHETS in the Science and Engineering building.”

“The Classroom building is also the same building it was in 1996. The room that is now the Veterans Center used to be so many different things, it was even The VanCougar at one point,” Schimelpfenig said.

With each new year, the growth of WSU Vancouver continues to rise. With only 38 people to graduate from WSU Vancouver in 1990, to over one-thousand graduates in 2018, the campus continues to flourish. Conversations and master plans now question the logistics of student housing on campus to accommodate the ever increasing enrollment rates and new programs and degrees. A look at the past reminds us of the potential of the future here at WSU Vancouver.