The idea for a University Center at Flathead Valley Community College should be vigorously pursued. Some four-year degrees are already offered at the school, but working with the state’s universities to set up satellite campuses on Kalispell’s existing one could have a huge impact on this area.
The school announced recently that its board of trustees had “continued its discussion about the development of a University Center and identified it as a top priority.” This would offer students the opportunity to earn more bachelor’s and master’s degrees in the Flathead.
Thus, potentially, someone could earn an engineering degree from Montana State University, or a business degree from the University of Montana, without leaving the valley. And, if there is enough interest, professors employed by those schools would work here. This is beyond online learning.
Right now, it is unclear how the college would house the University Center, either in an existing building or a new one built on its campus. But the job of selling itself as something beyond a community college should begin in earnest.
Kalispell will never be a college town, but it already is home to a destination college, especially in regard to programs such as nursing. The campus is growing, enrollment is up (though down from its recession peak), and there is now an opportunity to begin rebranding itself as more than a two-year school.
Moreover, we need it. There are jobs in the Flathead right now that local business owners are struggling to fill. Earlier this year, the college organized an event for students to meet with local businesses seeking employees, specifically in the tech industry. The employers were some of the most innovative in the valley, including ZaneRay Group, NXGEN Payment Services and Nomad Global Communication Solutions. Right now, many jobs at those companies are filled by employees from out of the area because that’s the only way they can be.
FVCC has done an admirable job adapting as the valley’s economy struggled, offering vital retraining programs to the unemployed, and then slowly recovered, soliciting advice from local business and industry leaders on how to best serve the community moving forward. And its latest idea should not be undersold.
I grew up in Spokane, Wash. in the ‘90s when few people spent time downtown, which was essentially blighted. But over the last decade that has changed. Yes, there was plenty of private investment in a new downtown mall and hotel, but the city also created a University District near Gonzaga University’s campus. The once drab, industrial neighborhood surrounding the prestigious school on the east side of downtown is unrecognizable today.
Washington State University, Eastern Washington University, the University of Washington and Whitworth University now have facilities in the district. And thousands of more students now live in the area and spend money downtown.
On a smaller scale, the University of Idaho, with its main campus in Moscow, partnered in 1985 with North Idaho College, a two-year school, in Coeur d’Alene. Since then, the academic partnership has flourished and the university moved into a larger building, which now also provides space for Lewis-Clark State College, Idaho State University and Boise State University. Average enrollment numbers at the University of Idaho, Coeur d’Alene each semester is 250 graduate and 265 undergraduate students.
Kalispell will never be Bozeman or Missoula, nor should it try to be. But the opportunity to retain more students wanting to seek four-year and advanced degrees in the valley, especially for those who are simply unable or unwilling to move, is a logical next step in FVCC’s growth. The board of trustees is smart to identify the center’s creation as a top priority and the university system should support the idea.