Students rally for Swayne

COEUR d’ALENE — North Idaho College students and other community members plan to rally tonight to demand that trustees reinstate NIC President Nick Swayne.

Students will gather at 5 p.m. outside the Schuler Performing Arts Center on the NIC campus. A meeting of the NIC board of trustees will begin at 6 p.m. in the same building.

The rally, organized by NIC students Damian Maxwell and Alex Elliott, is not hosted or sponsored by the ASNIC student government.

Students pointed to recent actions by the board as their reason for rallying, including placing Swayne on administrative leave, the controversial hiring of new legal counsel for the college and numerous possible violations of Idaho’s open meeting laws.

“This puts the school in jeopardy of losing accreditation,” a news release said. “Future students would potentially not have the opportunity to attend NIC and the community would lose an immeasurably valuable asset.”