Washington State University Vancouver (WSUV) is the Vancouver, Washington branch of Washington State University. WSU Vancouver's approximately 351-acre (1.42 km) campus is located on the southeast side of Mt. Vista approximately eight miles (13 km) north of the Columbia River . While small now, the size of this university is expected to grow very quickly due to its proximity to Portland, OR. Washington State University began offering courses in Southwest Washington in 1983 as part of the Southwest Washington Joint Center for Education. In 1989, the University formally established Washington State University Vancouver as a branch campus of the state's land-grant institution. The Salmon Creek campus opened in 1996. In Fall 2006, WSU Vancouver admitted freshmen and sophomores for the first time and began offering lower-division courses. The 351-acre (1.42 km) campus has many computing laboratories including student computing labs, group instruction labs, fine arts labs, circuits and microprocessors lab, computer aided drafting lab and a writing center. All provide students use of the Internet and access to WSU computing resources.