MY TURN: Don't lose this NIC treasure

I came to Coeur d’Alene in 1972, fresh out of graduate school with a wife, a baby boy and a lot more hair.

I was hired at NIC for a one-year gig, and then I was supposed to move along to earn a doctorate in communication. But something happened that kept me here. NIC taught me what a top rate educational environment was all about and should be about.

It is a place where students are welcomed just out of high school, just discharged after serving in the military or changing careers late in life. It is where students wanting to work in social work, become welders, computer scientists, nurses, diesel technicians or political scientists, can fulfill those goals, those dreams.

It is a place where skills can be mastered and ideas debated. Important in all of that are a faculty, an administration and a staff of professionals — highly qualified professionals — who collectively work to provide the best educational experience possible.

In 35 years of working there, I was blessed to see a robust campus teeming with students who loved this school and teachers who worked tirelessly to ensure those students received the very best in instruction.

There were always challenges, serious challenges, with growth, funding and such, but the college worked. It flourished with new buildings, new programs and increased enrollments. They were the best of times.

I also saw lean times. I sat in endless meetings when budgets had been cut, meaning staffing reductions and programs eliminated or downsized. Yet even in those times, changes were made in an environment of collective wisdom. It was “what’s best for NIC, for our students.” Everyone in the college community knew that any decision arrived at was after thoughtful, collective and good faith discussion.

Now, I’m seeing mean times in which decisions are made behind closed doors without discussion, where groups of people making recommendations are summarily dismissed without comment, an environment in which the very life of a great college that has withstood trials and tribulations for nearly a century is in danger of losing accreditation.

It has become a place where former colleagues of mine tell me they feel constant tension, frustration and anger at how the college is systematically being destroyed from within. It’s not budgets. It’s not programs. It’s the very culture eroding before their very eyes, in front of our eyes, too.

Colleges are environments where differences occur and open, honest and fruitful discussion occurs constantly. Everyone won’t be happy all the time. But now, in the current environment, discussions are not happening at all, and danger signs are being totally ignored at the peril of the community.

NIC is one of the jewels of this community. Beyond adding millions of dollars to the economy, it is a place where people can grow, be exposed to varying cultural events and prosper emotionally, intellectually and culturally.

To be a viable college, it must be a place where skills are learned and much more. Critical thinking must be taught and practiced. The democratic process must be taught, practiced and respected. Both of those include spirited debate where ideas other than your own are vetted with respect to many different points of view.

What as a community are we willing to let happen to this amazing place? Are we willing to let the mission of a few self-righteous individuals continue unabated in ways that are eroding everything hundreds — no, make that thousands — of community members, students, faculty, administrators and staff have worked so hard for these past decades? It is decision time.

I had a student from Coeur d’Alene who said, in his introductory speech, “I’m only here because my parents want to make sure I can handle college. I’ll be transferring in January to a four-year school.” He then transferred. The next fall I saw him walking down the hall and asked, “Why are you at ...?” His response I’ve never forgotten.

“I believed that NIC was just a local college where nothing really happened. After transferring, I discovered what an amazing place this is. Teachers know you. They care for and about you. Classes are invigorating, intellectually challenging. The four-year college experience was nothing like that. I love it here. I wish it was a four-year school!”

We are at a crossroads like none the college has ever experienced. Where do we go from here? I don’t know the answer, but I fear the path this wonderful place appears to be on.

Tim Christie is a Coeur d'Alene resident.