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More and more private and state Universities and Colleges are opening facilities in Idaho Falls. They all have a niche of students they are serving (hello, ISU - - you could be offering some of the non-specialty classes for undergrads but they don't). So now College of Southern Idaho has opened a center in Idaho Falls. There was no information online when I looked earlier. But classes have started.
Apparently, CSI says certain students can be a full-time student between what is offered online and at the center. CSI has a great reputation. I just want to know what degrees can be pursued in Idaho Falls. BYU-Idaho offers most undergrad degrees and is teaming with U. of I. to offer some Grad degrees. One doesn't have to be LDS to attend classes at BYU-IDAHO, rather just keep the Honor Code while on campus. You can't smoke and drink Starbucks or other favorite coffees while in class or on campus.
Now we have ISU- I.F., U. of ID - Idaho Falls, Boise State with CAES , EITC, Stevens Henagar which continues to add classes, and Northwest Nazarene all offering college classes. A private university from eastern Washington state offers specialized advanced training, but it is restricted.And BYU-IDAHO 25 miles away.
What do you think? If anyone else has info about CSI, please post. I think it's just CSI.edu, but I could be very wrong. I look forward to learning more Ha, ha given the subject
CSI is trying to offer more classes here to raise support to eventually have a junior college taxing district needed to have a full fledged community college present in eastern Idaho. They have already created the College of Western Idaho (CWI), which, after five years, as of fall 2014 officially offers courses independent of CSI. Prior to the fall if you took courses at CWI, they showed up as CSI courses on your transcript. Now that that school is essentially running on its own, CSI is bringing their focus to do the same thing on this side of the state. Hopefully you will see a College of Eastern Idaho (CEI) in the near future. Right now they only offer very basic courses over here, mostly intro classes in different divisions. https://www.facebook.com/CollegeofSo...52952537703620
CSI is trying to offer more classes here to raise support to eventually have a junior college taxing district needed to have a full fledged community college present in eastern Idaho. They have already created the College of Western Idaho (CWI), which, after five years, as of fall 2014 officially offers courses independent of CSI. Prior to the fall if you took courses at CWI, they showed up as CSI courses on your transcript. Now that that school is essentially running on its own, CSI is bringing their focus to do the same thing on this side of the state. Hopefully you will see a College of Eastern Idaho (CEI) in the near future. Right now they only offer very basic courses over here, mostly intro classes in different divisions. https://www.facebook.com/CollegeofSo...52952537703620
Thanks Chris. I hope this works. CSI, working with EITC, is offering three different Associates Degrees in Idaho Falls: Liberal Arts, Business and STEM.
Open house tomorrow from 9:00 a.m. to 1: 00 p.m.
CSI is in the building Odyssey Charter School was in. I think it is 1235 Jones St. If you know where District VIA Public Health is, on Hollipark, this is west of that complex. Basically, south of Lincoln Road and west of Woodruff. I think that would be a wonderful location to build a Community College. I'm not sure how much more EITC can expand and some of E IT'S property might be needed for road expansion on 17th and Hitt.
I hope potential students attend the open house. And remember, more degrees can be finished online, including a B.S.
ISU, UI, BSU, EITC and now CSI all in IF.... this is getting out of hand and extremely wasteful. MT. States indicated we need to get ISU more involved; WHY? Seriously, why do we always want the state (ISU) to play a larger and larger role.
Instead, the taxpayers in IF/Ammon/Bonneville County need to step to the plate like they DO with property taxes in Twin Falls.
ISU, UI, BSU, EITC and now CSI all in IF.... this is getting out of hand and extremely wasteful. MT. States indicated we need to get ISU more involved; WHY? Seriously, why do we always want the state (ISU) to play a larger and larger role.
Instead, the taxpayers in IF/Ammon/Bonneville County need to step to the plate like they DO with property taxes in Twin Falls.
Is it wasteful? That could be debated. At present, University Place is a very low-cost operation in comparison to the costs of a college campus.
It's natural to want ISU to offer more here. It's the closest large state university. Since the costs of living in a college town are way high now, and with the presence of lots of broadband access, why shouldn't higher education work the same way our elementary education system work? High schools all over the state are using internet education as an integral part of the curriculum. ISU could adopt exactly the same operation and practices, since lower eduction will soon have all the hardware in place for ISU to use.
If we want more of our kids to go on and get a college degree, the University Place model may prove the best and cheapest way for them to do it. University Place allows the potential of having the best professors in the state to teach our kids from Moscow, or Boise or Twin, or Pocatello with no need for them to leave their offices.
For the students, who have their questions answered just as much by professor's assistants as by the professors themselves, what's the difference between getting the answers between a video conference and a person to person conference? Nothing except physical distance.
Setting up more digital communication where all the hardware exists in both places is a hell of a lot cheaper and more flexible than bricks and mortar. Our kids will receive the same education in all the core classes required for most bachelor degrees that they would get sitting in a classroom, and University Place now serves well as our central information center for those who are already attending college there.
There are always going to be some degrees that will require hands-on experience that cannot be delivered over the internet, but none are not so specialized that most of the basic classes needed for a degree can't be conducted over the net. Degrees will always require those basics, and they're always the largest classes at any university.
What is wasteful is not using the best the state has, wherever it is located. What is wasteful is building one more college campus that will dog-rob students while doing nothing to decrease the costs of higher education. What is wasteful is not developing all the brick and mortar we already have here.
There is no reason I can see why Eastern idaho Technical College cannot become the lab extension for ISU's existing labs. There is no reason why all the credits that aren't accepted by our other colleges from EITC should exist, either, but that's the way it is now. That's a waste that can be corrected with no expense at all.
Anything we can do right now to get more degrees in more young hands, at the least cost, is not a waste.
In time, Idaho Falls will need its own college. We have proven that we are an entrepreneurial community willing to take risks for rewards, and we have become very well positioned as a state center for a lot of very sophisticated and technical research and industry. Given all we have now, our growth is inevitable, and there will be a time when a college here will best satisfy our community's needs.
But after close to 30 years, University Place, which was originally only an educational experiment, has proven itself to be viable. If anything, it was a decade ahead of it's time when it first began in 1980.
Like the old saw says: If it ain't broke, don't fix it. University Place doesn't need fixing. All it needs is improvement, and it could well become the prototype for the entire state as it improves. Right now, for example, Salmon could sure use something like University Place, and there are a dozen other towns that could benefit from cheap, good higher education as much as Salmon.
Thank you, Banjomike, for that well thought out, and intelligent reply. You are so often the voice of reason on the forum.
About 20 or 25 years ago a group of forward thinking and influential people tried to promote transitioning EICU into a four year school. Obviously, that plan did not work, but I honestly believe that someday we will see a full fledged college or university here. It would provide a wide range of benefits, most importantly, of course, education opportunities. The ability to provide qualified, well educated local people for the employers in this area, and provide the youth here the ability to get that education close to home is paramount. Less often recognised in a discussion like this is the value provided by a college to the community. After the construction boon, the staff's payroll, and usual benefits, the hidden benefits of a stadium, collegiate sports, increased visitors, and a presence only provide by an educational facility would take Idaho Falls to another level. There are people who oppose the idea, saying ISU and BYUI are close enough, and we don't need another 4 year school so close to those two. Some people I have spoken to about this say they don't want to see our area grow to another level and all that comes with it. Others favor a 4 year school in our area and understand the tremendous growth potential here.
I would like to hear what the people who actually live in Idaho Falls think. I'm sure there are lots of opinions on both sides of a hometown college.
For sure, it could be debated. The fact that BSU, UI, ISU, CSI, EITC are all in competition for the same students and dollars, each employing enrollment counselors to encourage enrollment is wasteful. I really hate the idea of state agencies competing with one another. What would be so wrong with EITC assuming all of these roles, transitioning later to a full fledged university in the same way BSU did? Of course, that path was abandoned in favor of blatant provincialism.
For sure, it could be debated. The fact that BSU, UI, ISU, CSI, EITC are all in competition for the same students and dollars, each employing enrollment counselors to encourage enrollment is wasteful. I really hate the idea of state agencies competing with one another. What would be so wrong with EITC assuming all of these roles, transitioning later to a full fledged university in the same way BSU did? Of course, that path was abandoned in favor of blatant provincialism.
Clearly you disagree, why?
EITC's mission from the beginning was much different. It has always been a vo-tech alone, and, to the best of my knowledge, has never offered any 2-year scholastic degree at all. It's scholastic function is directed more towards high school dropouts who want a diploma instead of a GED, or to train a secretary or a word processing operator than a student who wants a bachelor's degree.
That's part of its problem with its credit accreditation. EITC has transitioned much more toward basic scholastics than in its early years, but the last I heard, the Idaho Education Board is still having trouble with its credits.
The EITC campus is also geared towards hand-on occupations. It has some of its larger buildings that are mostly specialized labs and shops. The campus itself is too small to build more new classroom space unless the building becomes multi-story, and it its location, a mutl-story building may be restricted by codes. The property has very little room for expansion past what's there now.
BSU began as a 2-year jr. college a very long time ago. So did ISU and CSI. All of them had a lot more land than school for decades, and all grew slowly into full 4-year institutions. The school property excited in all before the town grew around all of them. EITC began before 17th St.'s development exploded, but there never was any more school property then than now.
I agree that some of our peculiar college problems are provincialism at its worst. Ricks, even before it became BYUI, didn't want I.F. to have a jr. college, and neither did Pocatello. ISU underwent 5 slow changes before it became a full university, and during that long period, Pocatello lost a lot of its best industries along with a slowing population growth. There was a long time when Poky was larger than I.F.- most of my life, in fact.
But I'm not at all sure what's going on in University Place is competition. Every university in Idaho is steadily losing student population, and every one of them is facing lower state funding, the great equalizer that kept all on an even keel.
At the same time, Idaho has relatively few schools within their universities that hold reputations so high as to attract students from out of state to them. The U of I's School of Mines and School of Timber are a couple, as is ISU's School of Pharmacy, but going to college in Idaho costs more for any student, resident or not, more than it costs in Wyoming, Utah, or Nevada. Out of state tuitions in all of those are about the same or slightly less, and they too have Schools with excellent credentials.
An Idaho higher education just isn't as advantageous as it once was, especially for the costs of attendance.
But every university and 4-year college still has to have it's English, Language, History, and lower level course professors, and all still have ever increasing costs of building maintenance, insurance, and all the rest.
I'm not so sure that some competition coming from rising attendance at University Place is such a bad thing at all, especially when the current competition is coming from Henninger College and similar for-profit schools. The money they generate doesn't stay in the state and doesn't go into their buildings. They can move any time they want, and can pack up and leave Idaho Falls anytime they want.
To me, that's not good competition at all. They make it easy for folks to go to night school or attend classes from home, but every student they catch is one that was dog robbed from University Place, as it too offers those same student advantages. And every dollar University Place makes stays here, and doesn't go off to the headquarters in Atlanta or someplace.
Giving an opportunity for a young professor who wants Idaho to be home for life, but wants to advance a career in education seems to be a better deal to me by far.
Our teacher's wages are so stinking low that any young professor will have to work overtime to make more money, but working overtime using University Place, when a professor's classroom in Moscow is half empty would certainly be a way of keeping a great Basic English professor who's willing to put in the extra hours in front of a 2-way internet connection.
I don't see that as a waste. It's certainly not nearly as great a waste as losing that good young teacher to Wyoming, Nevada, Utah, Oregon, or Washington, where they will work just as hard and make a lot more money.
And if University Place attracts former professors who retired early when they saw there were no more advantages to staying on as full-time teachers, where's the waste in that? i sure don't want our higher institutions to become the the same beginner's training ground that a lot of our primary schools have become. Far too many of our youngest teachers take a school job for a year to get some credentials, and then start looking for another job in Wyoming while they're teaching here.
The young can uproot and move a lot easier than the experienced teachers who spend their lives in a local school and are devoted citizens. Those senior teachers don't make beginner's mistakes, and they have a lot more dedication. The waste comes when they quit, and when the young who replace them move out. Building more brick and mortar solves none of that stuff except in districts that are far too overcrowded.
Offering a good primary teacher a second career after a few extra credits doesn't seem a waste to me either. Senior teachers who have attended summer school of years are often very close to having credentials that qualify for teaching in a college.
We slipped into this mess over a long period of time, and it's going to take as much time getting out of it. The longer Idaho has a rotten reputation in education, the longer it will take for student enrollment to rise, and the more expensive it will be to keep the bricks and mortar in good shape.
Once thriving small colleges have given it up here in Idaho; an abandoned college still exists in Weiser, and there are others scattered all over the state from top to bottom.
The University of Idaho is our oldest public university, but it may not last if the present conditions remain. Boise State would be mighty happy to get another piece of the U of I's funding any old time, and the U of I could shrivel quite a lot from what it is now. That would also benefit ISU and CNI, but it's also a huge waste in my opinion.
Times are changing fast. To me, it makes sense to use every cheap technological advantage we have, like the internet, to meet the changing needs of our changing students. We have a lot of adults who want a degree, and using the internet, University Place, and everything we can think of is a lot better to me than seeing folks leave or spend their money at Henninger rather than in an Idaho school.
The real waste is watching the tail lights recede in the distance with another Idahoan at the wheel.
That is a reasonable take on the situation, I just wish Idaho had a clearly defined system, one that doesn't seem like we are flying by the seat of our pants. One where Idaho has:
1) Large system of vo-tech and community colleges that are largely community financed because these grads tend to stay and enrich the local area.
2) Small system of 4-year colleges for teacher education and local work force needs which are partially funded by state, tuition and local communities: IF, CDA, Twin, Lewiston.
3) Smaller system of research universities that focus on the needs of the entire state with clearly defined research roles: Moscow, Poky and Boise. These universities would rely primarily on state funding, research grants and tuition.
BTW, has anyone ever been to the former Albion Normal School? An intriguing slice of Idaho history, for sure.
That is a reasonable take on the situation, I just wish Idaho had a clearly defined system, one that doesn't seem like we are flying by the seat of our pants. One where Idaho has:
1) Large system of vo-tech and community colleges that are largely community financed because these grads tend to stay and enrich the local area.
2) Small system of 4-year colleges for teacher education and local work force needs which are partially funded by state, tuition and local communities: IF, CDA, Twin, Lewiston.
3) Smaller system of research universities that focus on the needs of the entire state with clearly defined research roles: Moscow, Poky and Boise. These universities would rely primarily on state funding, research grants and tuition.
BTW, has anyone ever been to the former Albion Normal School? An intriguing slice of Idaho history, for sure.
I agree completely, Quenton!
Given Idaho's unique geographical problems, it's large size and long distances, and the big economic differences between various areas, what you suggest is much closer to what our ed system needs now.
What worked 100 years ago simply is failing now, most obviously. While a coherent, unified state plan will be difficult to develop, and probably will find much disagreement, any plan is better than none at all. Any experimental plan is better than nothing.
The thing is- once a plan is in place, a plan that has some waste and needless repetition taken into regard, it can alway be fine tuned bit by bit.
I think some thinking outside of the box may be necessary. Up to now, the larger cities have always been the starting point for any state ed plan, leaving the smaller and more remote towns as a secondary consideration.
And it's those small school districts that are the problematic rocks that always break the backs of unified education planning. Maybe if the planners were to start with the small and harder places first, concentrating on overcoming all the obstacles nature hands them, it could end up working better, as the big cities already have infrastructure, so their problems aren't as great, and they have more flexibility.
All the time I ran my own business, I always started the hardest jobs first. They got the first start, but not always were the first completed. But the completion always came sooner and easier once the start happened. The easy stuff can burn up time and effort too.
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Ha, ha given the subject 
Trying to build support for a community college
