Student group forms to back NIC rec center idea

We do want it and we’re willing to pay for it.

That’s the message a group of students wants to send administrators at North Idaho College regarding construction of a recreation center on campus.

For four years, members of the student government have been trying to push this project to realization. They conducted feasibility and financial impact studies and held a student advisory vote. Only 10 percent of NIC’s 4,000 students cast ballots in the vote, so administrators remain unconvinced of the student body’s take on the issue.

Now, a new student organization has formed. The goal of the Associated Recreation Center Advocates is to inform students about the proposed rec center, organize supporters and send a clear message to the college president and his cabinet.

“We want this,” said Ryan Robinson, a communications sophomore.

Kent Propst, a member of the president’s cabinet, said he doesn’t doubt that a core group of traditional students wants the center.

But he wants to know what the 45 percent of non-traditional students want. Is it fair to charge off-campus students – the 10 percent who take courses at satellite campuses or online? Can the college afford to build a center?

“There are still a lot of questions up in the air,” said Propst, assistant to the president for community relations.

Propst points to the fact that some board members didn’t even want to raise tuition and fees the normal increase of 3 percent.

While a rec center would certainly better the campus, Propst said, he questions whether its establishment will take away the college’s claim to be low cost. Tuition and fees for a full-time Kootenai County resident are $950.

“Fees are always going to be raised,” Robinson said in response. “But this time, when fees are raised for a rec center, students will have something tangible to show for it.”

In the student advisory vote, a majority of respondents favored an option that would increase fees $100 a semester to build a $7.7 million, 26,000-square-foot facility. It would include weight and fitness equipment, cardiovascular equipment, a multipurpose room, a full court and multipurpose gym, and a rock-climbing wall.

The other two options would increase fees $85, for fewer amenities at the facility, and $250 for more amenities.

Bruce Gifford, another member of the president’s cabinet, is a strong supporter of building a rec center.

“We need to keep it on the front burner,” said Gifford, the retiring vice president for student services. “Long term, I really hope this happens.”

Gifford said there are big-picture benefits of having a recreational facility on campus. It would act as a retention tool, he said: The more students are involved on campus, the more likely they are to stick around and be successful. It would also be a shot in the arm for the physical education department, he added.

Besides having discussions with the student body at large, proponents of the rec center might benefit from thinking outside the box, Gifford said. For example, the University of Alaska was able to build a center on their campus with help from the federal government. They teamed up with the National Guard, which uses the facility once a month for training.

At Idaho’s other community college, the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, a recreation center is due to open at the end of the month. That school funded the building by squirreling away institutional funds and with a $25 increase in tuition and fees to replenish the college’s general fund, Dean of Students Graydon Stanley said.

Like at NIC, the president of Southern Idaho was wary of asking students for a high perpetual fee to build the $4.3 million, 24,000-square-foot center, Stanley said. But the college will probably have to ask students for another increase of $10 to $20 to pay for operational costs.

Still, the college saved money by cutting features such as showers and dressing rooms, which are expensive because of plumbing costs and space and are not really necessary, Stanley said.

His advice to NIC is to go for it.

“This is a great way to go,” Stanley said. It’s hard to be a viable college campus without things like a student union and recreation center, he said.

But both the students and administration have to be on board. If they are, Stanley said, “then they’ll find the means to make this happen.”