Open the doors, feel the joy

We're not going to spend a lot of energy arguing that North Idaho College is breaking the law by prohibiting the general public from attending a candidate forum next week.

We will suggest, though, that the college is missing a great opportunity to build bridges with its critics.

For years, NIC has hosted candidate forums focusing on issues of importance to students, staff, faculty and administration. For years, the media and campus figures, including members of the board of trustees, have been welcome to attend, while the general public has not. And for years, nobody has raised a stink.

Until now.

Earlier this week, former state Rep. Gary Ingram objected to the general public's exclusion from the forum. Ingram knows something about Idaho's open meetings laws; he wrote 'em. However, acting on a question from state Sen. John Goedde, the Attorney General's office said the forum does not violate the state statute, and that NIC is well within its rights to admit and lock out whomever it chooses.

Idaho is nowhere near the nation's leaders in conducting government business openly. Its open meeting and public records laws are widely regarded as weak, particularly by those of us in the information-gathering business. On top of that wobbly foundation, meetings like next week's forum raise inquisitive eyebrows higher because of the current political climate: the last legislative session debated potentially sweeping changes to the way our state's community colleges operate, and the next legislative session might actually embrace significant reform. Closing to the general public a candidate forum with simmering issues like local control and a possible shift in how the state's public colleges are financed might be legal, but it sure doesn't seem very smart.

NIC has been under fire locally for perceived failures to communicate and cooperate with the public it is chartered to serve. It has struggled with a dip in enrollment and a costly tip in the funding scales created largely by a more aggressive fiscal challenger, College of Southern Idaho. Arguably, NIC has never needed more ardent, broad support in its backyard. And we can't identify a time when our beautiful little campus on the lake has had less.

NIC is struggling to overcome the perception that too often, it marches to the beat of its own drummer, rather than the rhythm of a demanding public. Further, college campuses are the ideal place for a free and open exchange of ideas, information and opinions, particularly when topics of the day have a direct bearing on the very people whose taxes support the institution. Welcoming those who feel disenfranchised could go far in improving the perception that NIC is reaching out to its critics, rather than ostracizing them in the shadows of an ivory tower.