A $12 million joint-use facility that would make it easier for students to plan all of their higher education needs here on the NIC campus is closer than ever to becoming a reality.
Representatives from NIC will be making a presentation requesting $4 million to the Permanent Building Advisory Committee in Boise on Oct. 7, with the remainder of the estimated building cost to be split between NIC, Lewis-Clark State College and the University of Idaho.
The proposed building would unite the efforts of NIC, LCSC, U of I and Idaho State University in a single building dedicated to helping students plan and carry out their educational goals from pre-associates degree to their final graduation. NIC Vice President for Community Relations Mark Browning said that it would be a “one stop service center” for students.
The joint-use facility idea germinated over 10 years ago with the formation of the North Idaho Consortium of Higher Education, or “NICHE,” which first envisioned using the land we now call the “educational corridor” that extends from NIC to the Harbor Center building on the Spokane River. LCSC and U of I have been offering higher-degree courses in Coeur d’Alene for 35 years and have been occupying the Harbor Center building since 2002.
The Harbor Center would still house most of the administration offices for LCSC and U of I, but all advising, financial aid and registrars’ offices of the participating colleges would be housed in the joint-use building. Browning said that having all of these offices as well as new classrooms in the new building would free up much needed space for more classrooms at NIC as well.
Rocky Owens, LCSC’s Coeur d’Alene Director, said he “sees the building as a physical embodiment of higher education cooperation, with NIC as the flagship.”
Owens said 92 percent of LCSC’s students come from NIC, adding that LCSC “rests on the shoulders of NIC.”
“It can’t happen soon enough,” said Jody Neuberger, LCSC Harbor Center administrative assistant. She is on the front lines scrambling to coordinate classroom space for LCSC students at NIC each semester
The proposed building would occupy the space which is currently home to several smaller buildings, the motor pool, the copy center and the testing center.
