Nilson: Time to wake up about NIC

North Idaho College is in the middle of a “hostile takeover” and I’m not going to be a part of it.

Taxpayers of Kootenai County, it’s time to wake up. You need to know what’s going on inside the walls of NIC. As a trustee, I was able to see the inside of this education system, but it’s hard to explain to your friends and fellow colleagues about the politics of higher education. For the last eight years, I have watched a system that says: If you are not with us, you are against us. If you are against us, we will attack you and discredit your character.

Few people really know what is going on here at NIC. As Henry Kissinger said at Harvard: “Politics on the university campus are the worst of all kinds of politics, because the stakes are so small.” I agree they are the worst kind of politics, but disagree that the stakes are small. These stakes are HUGE! These students are our next generation.

The Association of Students of NIC (ASNIC), the administration, the faculty and political activists have teamed up to push for “shared governance” of the college. In short, they want to seize for themselves the responsibility of making policy decisions from your elected trustees. If you like the politically correct style that is rampant on other campuses, then you will love “shared governance.” Make no mistake, the words “consensus” or “collaboration” in practice, mean that everyone agrees to support them, or else.

To advance their cause, ASNIC and their comrades have launched a series of attacks and have made a litany of false and ridiculous claims culminating in a “resolution” which misrepresents the situation and misstates the law. This “resolution” itself is a glaring example of the poor state of civics education in our public schools.

More than most elected officials, Trustees have a unique set of duties and responsibilities BOTH to the institution and to the taxpayers. The Board of Trustees primarily deals with policy and not the day-to-day governance of college operations. That is the administration’s job, so even the concept of “shared governance” is inappropriate and conflicts with the duties of the Board of Trustees as prescribed by Idaho law.

I ran for the NIC board to help make a difference in our education system in North Idaho. When I arrived three-and-a-half years ago, we ranked at the bottom of the national average in Career and Technical Education (CTE). Our facilities were outdated, unsafe and we were forced to turn down students who wanted into our CTE classes. Today we have made CTE our No. 1 focus and are just completing the new 110,000-square-foot campus, alongside KTEC (Kootenai Technical Education Campus), on the prairie, and all without raising your taxes.

This common sense plan came with a fight from the administration and the faculty. They wanted CTE on the current campus, next to the river. They sent teams of students and faculty members to every board meeting to lobby for their position.

The truth is that locating CTE on the prairie was one of the smartest decisions ever made by the Board of Trustees of NIC. This completes a concept of a CTE campus, built right next to KTEC, where students can move easily between the two. Today KTEC has a 97 percent placement rate, one of the highest in the country. We can now share resources and have more students involved in our dual enrollment. I believe this will be one of our greatest economic sales tools to attract businesses to North Idaho looking for a skilled and trained workforce.

Another ongoing fight on the board, involves NIC’s use of our “foregone taxes.” If you remember back in 2007, the NIC board approved collection of $10 million for the mill property. But after that $10 million was collected, they didn’t stop collecting your money (just like LCDC / ignite cda). They say it wasn’t their initial intent, but thought this money could be used for future acquisitions. Every budget session, including this year, they want to use the money for things outside what it was collected for, like pay increases. They now are pushing an additional (3 percent) pay increase for all personnel on campus this year, after a (4 percent) increase last year. How many of you received a (7 percent) increase in the last two years?

My favorite fight was the proposed “NIC Sports Complex” which started out as a 5,000-6,000 seat arena that would have cost about $20 million, with some of the money coming from LCDC or ignite cda, our tax dollars. It was proposed that NIC would run this facility and host top name entertainment from around the country. We talked to many other sports complexes and asked them about how this works. All of them said, we would need more taxes from the public. This discussion was led and promoted by our president and the board chairman. This fight lasted about three to five months and when they found no support from our community, they withdrew this crazy idea.

Which brings us to the BIG fight: It all started with House Bill No. 512 that was submitted six years ago by Rep. Frank Henderson. This bill made so much sense to me! The proposal was simple. You would have equal population, for each trustee across the county. Six years later No. 512 passed with a 97 percent approval rating from our state Legislature. The funny thing was all three community colleges resisted this bill and voted against it. I never understood why, but as I look back, the only reason could be that they can’t control who is elected in areas like Spirit Lake, Rathdrum, and Harrison. These community representatives would want to hold this educational institution accountable and be responsible to all the taxpayers throughout Kootenai County. Go to the NIC website and watch the video of the special meeting held on May 9. You will see for yourself.

I have never quit anything in my life. But with my resignation, I am able to write this story, which I hope wakes up the taxpayers, families and students of North Idaho. I will go back to doing what I love, making a difference in our young people’s lives. I will leave the politics to NIC!

Ron Nilson is a Coeur d’Alene resident.