Western Washington University is a four year regional state university with more than 12,000 students, making it the third-largest institution of higher education in the state. Nearly 4,000 students, including 92 percent of all first-year students, live on the 215-acre campus. Western is in the midst of a capital facilities program that already has seen a student-funded recreation center open in 2003. A new classroom building for the departments of communications, journalism, computer science and physics opened in 2004. Western celebrated its centennial during the 1999-2000 school year.