Cda Mines Rewards UI With Property Corporation Gives University Land For Its Commitment To North Idaho
Coeur d’Alene Mines Corp. on Friday gave $200,000 in property to the University of Idaho for expansion at its Coeur d’Alene Center.
The company’s chief executive officer, Dennis Wheeler, said that in June the company will transfer to UI an apartment building and lot next to North Idaho College.
The 125- by 200-foot lot is on River Avenue across from NIC’s library parking lot. The UI’s Coeur d’Alene Center is located on the second floor of the NIC library.
The new property will provide temporary office space, and eventually the site for a new building.
Wheeler, a UI alumnus and former UI regent, said the gift was in appreciation for the university’s dedication to higher education in the five northern counties.
The company purchased the eight-unit Polly Apartments two years ago with the intent of giving it to the community, Wheeler said.
He credited UI President Elisabeth Zinser with expanding the university’s commitment to the Coeur d’Alene Center and other offcampus programs.
The announcement came just a day after Zinser announced her resignation to take a job at the University of Kentucky.
In choosing Zinser’s successor, Wheeler said, “I hope the university…goes out and gets a twin.”
In turn, Zinser complimented the company for helping the university expand.
“This particular location on the edge of NIC is just perfect,” she said.
The UI’s Coeur d’Alene Center has focused primarily in recent years on teacher education. Educators rave about its Classroom 2000, a model classroom filled with the latest in educational technology.
Starting this fall in Coeur d’Alene, UI plans to offer a bachelor’s degree in business, with a marketing major, said Jack Dawson, the center’s director.
The center also is planning on offering a hydrology degree with an emphasis on lake management in conjunction with NIC. Other future plans include engineering classes and workshops or other education services for government and industry, UI officials said.
“We try to choose those areas where there’s a good marriage between what we can offer and what the community needs are,” Zinser said.