PORT TOWNSEND — Washington State University reasserted its presence on the North Olympic Peninsula and will reassess its success in its role after the university president spent two days meeting with community leaders, educators and alumni.

“I learned a lot on this trip,” said Elson Floyd, prior to addressing a town hall meeting at the Northwest Maritime Center in Port Townsend on Tuesday.

“I learned about water quality, agriculture and WSU’s role in supporting these issues.”

Floyd visited Port Angeles on Monday. His tour of the North Olympic Peninsula was part of an initiative to visit all 39 counties by this summer, examining specific local characteristics as they relate to WSU’s mission.

He planned to visit Grays Harbor County today.

He said that after each trip, he gets together with his staff to consolidate the information gathered.

“We do a ‘triage’ to gather what we have learned, and then determine what our next steps will be in the area,” he said.

Rural education spots

Floyd said he was reminded on the Peninsula how rural education centers are more essential for those in remote areas than in cities, since it means they do not have to travel vast distances to earn a degree.

“This was a phenomenal visit,” said Katherine Baril, who directs Jefferson County’s WSU Extension office.

“We saw the commitment the university has to the local community, along with how there are many in the community who are committed to the university and education.”

Baril expects that one of the results of the visit will be more WSU faculty support for local small businesses.

Floyd won many people over with his direct delivery, and his tendency to listen to others rather than dominate the conversation.

On several occasions people addressed him as “Dr. Floyd” and he corrected them with a request to use his first name, Elson.

Floyd spoke at the Port Townsend Rotary meeting at noon, and then traveled to the headquarters of Intellicheck Mobilisa, in the Glen Cove Industrial Park.

At that time Floyd was briefed by company CEO Nelson Ludlow about the company’s smart card reader technology, as well as the buoys it has constructed and installed to monitor Puget Sound.

Smart card

Mobilisa has developed a card reader that picks up information from a “smart card” about the person’s identity, making it easier to check into hotels and enter a building.

Floyd expressed interest in the process, immediately responding that such technology could provide a repository for academic records and function as a value-added student ID.

At the same time he had some misgivings.

“I like this because it increases the ease of a transaction,” Floyd said.

“But it could become our worst nightmare if the data in the system is incorrect and you continue to repost it.”

Said Ludlow, “We are doing a better job in refining the data so we don’t end up hassling the wrong people.”

Ludlow said he hires people from varied academic backgrounds, and that a WSU graduate could beat out a Harvard graduate for a job at Mobilisa “if they had the type of imaginative thinking we are looking for.”

Ludlow, who received his undergraduate degree from WSU, said the school “is where I learned to think outside of the box.”

He added that his company has a close relationship with the school, and that it was essential that WSU maintain a strong local presence.

“We do not have enough academic opportunities out here,” Ludlow said. “Right now, you are offering the only chance for graduate degrees west of Puget Sound.”

After the briefing, Ludlow and Floyd spent several minutes discussing the specifics of the company’s buoy technology, that can monitor both nuclear threats and environmental conditions.

Floyd also toured the WSU Extension office and met with Team Jefferson during his Port Townsend visit.

________

Jefferson County Reporter Charlie Bermant can be reached at 360-385-2335 or at charlie.bermant@peninsuladailynews.com.