The Daily Evergreen WGU is a consortium of state universities and technology companies that plans to offer college degrees through the Internet. The consortium's board of trustees will meet Thursday to work out final details of the pilot program. At their meeting, the trustees will also officially welcome the state of Texas and the Microsoft corporation as consortium partners, according to WGU spokesperson Jeff Edwards. The trustees include the governors of Utah, Colorado, Wyoming and Nebraska, plus 10 other members from public universities and technology companies. Edwards said the pilot program would offer a two-year associate of arts degree and a vocational degree in electronics manufacturing. Seventeen western public universities will participate in the project, with each offering classes online or by correspondence. Students will be able to choose classes from any participating university through one common catalog. Washington State University will act as the online university's registrar for a year until the virtual school can get its own system going. The consortium is working on getting its program accredited, Edwards said. Eventually, it hopes to offer a variety of associate degrees online, as well as certification programs. The university was created in 1995 by the Western Governors' Association and was incorporated as an independent nonprofit institution in January. It has offices in Salt Lake City, Utah, and Aurora, Colo. The Western Governors' Association, which meets in Seattle Thursday, brings together the governors from 18 western states, Guam, American Samoa and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands to work on regional policy issues. Members of the WGU consortium include the states of Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Washington, Wyoming and the territory of Guam. Other companies taking part are Sun Microsystems, AT&T;, 3Com Corp., IBM, Apple Computer, KPMG-Peat Marwick, International Thomson Publishing and Novell. WGU has approved a budget of $12.8 million for next year. This year, it collected $2 million in public and private donations.
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