UI Collecting North Idaho Growth Data Three Schools To Develop Joint Plan For Higher Education
The University of Idaho is launching a major demographic study to predict how North Idaho will grow in the next five to 10 years.
Data collected from banks and retailers are expected to help estimate both population and demographic trends in Idaho’s five northernmost counties.
With that information, North Idaho College, Lewis-Clark State College and the UI will have to reach a consensus on how to serve the Panhandle’s educational needs.
“Coeur d’Alene is going to need a lot more upper-division offerings in some professional programs,” UI President Robert Hoover said Monday in Coeur d’Alene. “We are working on how do you do that with both UI and LCSC.”
The demographic data report is due in January, with the three schools to develop a joint plan by September 1998. That deadline was set two years ago by Idaho Board of Education President Judith Meyer of Coeur d’Alene.
NIC is gathering local data from the Coeur d’Alene Chamber of Commerce, while UI Provost Brian Pitcher has contacted the Albertsons grocery chain and First Security Bank for their help.
Albertsons uses U.S. Census Bureau data on age, ethnicity, occupation and educational status to help decide where to locate new stores and what goods to carry. First Security Bank also does county-by-county economic forecasting.
“Certainly our emphasis is what kinds of occupations and industries are there that are likely to grow as we attempt to match those with post-secondary educational needs,” Pitcher said.
The schools must strike a balance between courses taught by on-site faculty members and those taught electronically. And they must streamline operations to make it easy for students to transfer between the three schools.
Hoover admitted Monday that similar negotiations between UI and Idaho State University over Idaho Falls turf resulted in a lot of “turmoil in the back room.” But that bickering doesn’t matter to residents in the state, he said.
They want schools to work together and offer as many degrees as possible without competing directly. Coeur d’Alene clearly is NIC’s area, Hoover said.
“In the short term, we’d like to build on what they’re doing. We don’t want to intrude; we want to collaborate.”
Lewis-Clark and UI can’t afford to wage turf wars over who will serve North Idaho students who want a four-year degree, Hoover said. Plus, NIC will need both schools’ help as it becomes more heavily affected by Kootenai County’s booming population.
“We don’t have enough resources, either one of us, to offer the full range of what this community needs,” Hoover said.
, DataTimes