ISU excited for ‘CEI’ partnership
Idaho State University could be seeing a larger selection of upper-level and graduate programs offered at the Idaho Falls campus after the community voted to transform Eastern Idaho Technical College into a community college.
On Wednesday, ISU officials released a statement voicing support for the change:
“Idaho State University acknowledges the importance of postsecondary education in Idaho Falls, and we look forward to closely collaborating with the new community college to jointly advance higher education opportunities. ISU will continue to serve the community of Idaho Falls through our existing campus and the future polytechnic institute.”
Interim Dean of ISU’s College of Science and Engineering and former Dean of the Idaho Falls campus said, if the community college ends up being successful, the University could expect to see an increase in the continuation rate in Bonneville County and eastern Idaho because of the access to lower tuition classes being offered.
“The folks in Idaho Falls who work for ISU are very excited to work with the community college and we are hoping for a good partnership that’s mutually beneficial to both entities,” Castle said during a phone interview on Wednesday afternoon. “A win-win relationship is what we’re looking for.”
He said, this will allow ISU to partner with the future College of Eastern Idaho, where students can earn their two-year Associates degree before transferring to the Idaho Falls ISU campus for another two years in order to complete their degree.
Castle noted, this would give ISU’s Idaho Falls campus an opportunity to add more upper-level and graduate degrees that have only been offered at the Pocatello campus. He said, the state gave ISU more funding to add nine new faculty positions at the campus to allow the addition of these programs to be possible.
“We used to look at the Idaho Falls campus as a place we used to just offer classes, more so than a place we offer programs,” Castle said.
He added, there could be a possibility of more than nine new positions created at the Idaho Falls campus if they leverage INL resources and funding, however he said there’s no guarantee.
However, he said this partnership will open more opportunities for the University to build a faculty more complimentary to the INL and it’s mission.
“We see this as an opportunity to be more of what you would expect of a university that’s across the street from a national laboratory,” Castle said.
He expects, over time, there could be a shift in the student population from lower-division courses, now to upper-division programs.
But in the long run, he expects this to be beneficial for attracting students from other schools such as BYU-Idaho.
He added, “Students who come here would have access to do research projects that will allow them to get involved in the research taking place at the lab. While we already see some of that here, we can expect that to expand tremendously.”
