Colleges combine forces for building

COEUR d'ALENE - Three local colleges have made a facility they would share in Coeur d'Alene their No. 1 building wish.

And state decision makers now know all about it.

Lewis-Clark State College, the University of Idaho and North Idaho College this week pleaded their case in Boise to the Permanent Building Fund Advisory Council for the future building in Coeur d'Alene's education corridor.

J. Anthony "Tony" Fernandez, LCSC's interim president who was at NIC for LCSC Day on Wednesday, said the project, estimated to be 80,000 square feet and cost $21 million, recently rounded a corner when the three colleges agreed to make it their top building priority.

Fernandez said that he and the other college presidents hope legislators and other officials will see the collaborative effort, making the project more attractive to fund than individual colleges asking for their own building.

"The days are gone when you think you can be a little isolated school anywhere in the country and meet students' needs," Fernandez told The Press editorial board. "There needs to be different ways of offering programs to students more efficiently so they can get the degree they desire."

No funding has been set aside for the building, which would be state-owned.

But Fernandez said getting the project on the state board's radar was a critical step.

"Now is the time to go to the state and make it a priority," he said. "It may take a year or two of asking, but if you don't ask for it, you won't get it."

The common building would give LCSC more of a sense of a home in Coeur d'Alene, Fernandez said.

"If a facility becomes reality, that would be home base for LC-Coeur d'Alene, but more than that we need to look at the programs and service needs of the students," Fernandez said. "A building is nice, but you need programs for them that meets the students' curriculum needs."

The Lewiston-based four-year college this summer moved out of its classrooms in the Harbor Plaza commercial/retail mall on Northwest Boulevard, and into a pair of portables on a portion of the old DeArmond mill site property off River Avenue, now owned by the NIC Foundation and leased to the college. The area is commonly referred to as the education corridor and the move was intended to improve the opportunity for partnerships, education officials said.

Fernandez said a common facility near NIC would be ideal because many NIC students move on to pursue four-year degrees at UI and LCSC.

Enrollment at LCSC's Coeur d'Alene branch climbed to 429 this fall, an 8.3 percent increase over last year's 396.

But Fernandez believes there's plenty of room to grow.

"If we had a permanent facility, I believe we could approach 1,000 students," he said. "Right now we're cramped, we're good renters and we're living out of our suitcases."