Wilsonville Seeks to Solidify “Workforce Development” Infrastructure with Arrival of Oregon Institute of Technology

By Tim Knapp, City of Wilsonville Mayor

You may have heard the exciting news that the state’s premier university of engineering and technology training seeks to relocate to Wilsonville. The Oregon Institute of Technology (OIT) plans to consolidate four Portland metro-area campus locations to the vacant, 140,000-square-foot InFocus building.

Over the years, the most-often repeated issue of concern that I have heard consistently from our city’s major employers revolves around workforce development — that leading businesses compete successfully in a global economy by recruiting and retaining the most innovative, well-educated employees. In particular, Wilsonville high-tech firms like Coherent, FLIR, Mentor Graphics, Precision Interconnect, Rockwell Collins and Xerox that are the employers of tomorrow need top-quality workers who are skilled in hard sciences and various fields of engineering.

As a center of higher education focused on science and engineering, OIT promises to provide area employers with opportunities for internships, advanced studies for current employees, a fertile ground of prospective new hires and potential new business spin-offs and other public-private collaborations.

Just as Wilsonville has made a significant public investment in basic infrastructure—high-quality roads, transit services, water and sewer—we can now leverage our close relationship with educational partners like the West Linn-Wilsonville school district and Clackamas Community College to work with OIT and cement the community’s reputation as a great place to live, work, play and learn. Strengthening our educational infrastructure complements the work the city has done with basic infrastructure and provides a solid foundation from which businesses may thrive and prosper in a competitive world economy.

The OIT proposal to relocate to Wilsonville is an exciting development, and city officials are working to enable it to succeed. OIT can make a strong contribution to the future of Wilsonville.

Coming to Wilsonville: Elements of OIT’s Decision
Oregon Institute of Technology’s decision to consolidate all four Portland area campuses to one Wilsonville site, the vacant InFocus building, was based on several factors:

• South side of Portland metro area: OIT has been looking for an appropriate site on the south side of the Portland metro area with good access to major highways and more central location to serve students on both east and west sides of Portland.

• Access to high-quality transit services: OIT was attracted to Wilsonville’s South Metro Area Regional Transit (SMART) services, which provide direct linkages with Tri-Met and WES to Portland and with CATS to Canby and Cherriots to Salem.

• Available facility at reasonable price: Purchase of the existing InFocus building, which could house all of OIT’s Portland programs and provide room to grow, would cost $20 million less than building a new facility from scratch.

• Warm Wilsonville welcome: Elected officials and business leaders reached out to OIT, initially for interest in helping to develop an optics/laser-optics technical training program and subsequently to opening a campus location.
Dr. Chris Maples, OIT President, reports that if the move to Wilsonville is successful, OIT anticipates opening in Fall 2012 for the first class of 600 students. Eventually OIT could enroll 1,000 students at the Wilsonville campus, which might include on-site housing.

In the Portland area, most students attend courses in the evening, and many students take six to seven years to obtain a degree. OIT graduates have a 90% placement rate with an average starting salary of $52,000.

Oregon Higher Education Funds, Ballot Measure 69, will appear on the May 18, 2010, election as a legislatively-referred constitutional amendment. The measure clarifies that a public university may purchase an existing facility, rather than construct solely new buildings, with bond funds.