Beginnings In 1987, the Washington State Higher Education Coordinating Board (HECB), the predecessor to the
Washington Student Achievement Council, released its first master plan which concluded that existing upper division and graduate higher education programs in the State of Washington, particularly in its urban areas, were inadequate for the state's population. The conclusion was drawn based on the low rates of enrollment and completion of
baccalaureate programs for Washington residents as compared to other states around the country.
Establishment In 1989, responding to the HECB's conclusion, the
Washington State Legislature along with then-Washington State Governor
Booth Gardner, established five branch campuses within growing cities across Washington (
Bothell,
Tacoma,
Vancouver, the
Tri-Cities and
Spokane). The change was in nomenclature only and was made to symbolize the growth of higher education in the state in the roughly 25 years since the campuses were originally established, and to recognize that each of the campuses had matured and formed their own identities. It did not alter the governance and funding structure of the state's public research universities. Therefore, the campuses, including WSU Spokane, still report to their main campuses and do not operate with full autonomy and separate governance like affiliated universities in other
state university systems in the United States (such as the
University of California and
University of Texas systems) do.
Refocus as a health sciences campus On September 3, 2010, to recognize the university's long-term vision to advance WSU Spokane in the health sciences arena and recent parallel efforts to launch a medical school in Spokane, In recent years WSU Spokane has expanded significantly. Thanks to intense community support, legislative funding to build a new facility for the pharmacy and medical sciences programs was approved, and private funding of second year medical education was secured. These actions prompted the College of Pharmacy to move in its entirety to the Spokane campus in 2013 and the
Elson S. Floyd College of Medicine to be created in 2014. Another recent effort was the establishment of a consortium of Empire Health Foundation, Providence Health Care and WSU Spokane that successfully applied for federal teaching health center funding for six new medical residency slots, with the possibility of another 12 or more if funding is continued. The effort moved responsibility of nearly all of the medical residences in Eastern Washington to the consortium's Spokane Teaching Health Center. A clinic for the residents and WSU students working in teams to serve low-income community members was finished in early 2016.
Establishing a medical school In May 2021, WSU Spokane graduated its first class of medical students. ==Campus==