Huskies may soon have a new place to call home. Future college students will get the opportunity to study at one of the four finalist sites for the location of a new UW campus north of Seattle.

Final recommendations will be made to the legislature Nov. 15. Community members in Everett, Marysville and Lake Stevens are campaigning for their cities to be chosen for the new four-year college, with two possible locations in Everett.

Marysville citizens wore T-shirts bearing the words "Real Huskies Go North (of Everett)," blasted Husky pep tunes and brought in two Siberian huskies to greet the campus planners Oct. 3 outside of the Everett Events Center.

"There's a certain amount of regional competition going on," said Lee Huntsman, co-chair of the working group in charge of drafting an academic plan for the new school.

Huntsman has attended several public forums on the issue over the past months.

He emphasized the need to approach the decision carefully.

"We want to remind people that this is a big decision, one you can't reverse. Once you build a campus, it's there for 100 years or so," he said. "This discussion has to be centered on how we're going to serve the students and how we're going to serve the state."

The four finalists include two locations in Everett, one in Marysville and one in Lake Stevens. The planning committee will recommend three, with one preference, to legislators Nov. 15. The state Legislature will pick a final site in January.

The new branch of the campus will focus on science and engineering disciplines while still offering a range of liberal arts majors.

"At least part of the economy relies on students from these fields," said Norm Arkans, director of UW media relations. "There has been a consensus that we're not producing enough graduates from these areas of study."

Site evaluations are being conducted through NBBJ, a local architectural firm. Ten sites were whittled down to four based on several sets of criteria.

"They looked at all of these factors of feasibility: whether or not they were large enough or had access to public transportation," Arkans said. "Some sites had issues of ownership; others were considered not large enough. We also decided that some sites needed to be within shouting distance of a major transportation corridor, like I-5."

Along with site evaluations, Huntsman and his academic working group will present the Legislature with a preliminary academic plan. Data analysis of student demand in each area will also be presented.

"There is some conflicting and controversial data about the actual student demand in some of these areas, so we have a team of analysts assembled to deal with all of this data," Huntsman said.

Arkans said there are two ways the school could go forward, depending on the choices the Legislature makes in November.

"The way we did Bothell and Tacoma was that we picked a site, hired a small pool of faculty and grew incrementally," starting with very few degrees, he said.

The other model is that of the University of California system, where a new campus is chosen, most of the faculty is hired and the school opens up for business a year later ready to go, Arkans said.

"In that case, you have to have a lot of money up front. We'll have to see what the Legislature chooses," he said.

Arkans added that the new campus should not have a negative impact on any of the other UW branches.

"You can't build a school at the expense of other campuses," he said.

[Reach reporter Arla Shephard at news@thedaily.washington.edu.]