UI's Sandpoint campus gets green light

TWIN FALLS — Sandpoint is officially a college town.

After a day of debate and a packed agenda, the Idaho State Board of Education voted 5-1 to Thursday night approve the proposed University of Idaho's Sandpoint campus.

Under the proposal, the Wild Rose Foundation would spend $31 million to purchase the Sandpoint Research & Extension Center, develop a college campus on 31 acres and gift it back to the university.

Sen. Shawn Keough, R-Sandpoint, who was on hand to speak in favor of the Sandpoint campus, said she intends to ask the Legislature for $800,000 to fund campus operations in 2009.

Keough said funding is doable in light of "the generous gift" by the Wild Rose Foundation.

Among the options being presented to the board, one includes legislative funding and the other does not.

Keough, a strong proponent of the Sandpoint campus, said she sees a lot of potential for students in Bonner and Boundary counties to go to college where otherwise they could not afford to go.

If the state board agrees to the proposal, a lot of meetings will take place in the next several weeks regarding everything from fund raising to specific building details, and establishing the community advisory board, according to Larry Branen, U of I's vice president for northern Idaho.

In Sandpoint, UI would deliver a minor in business, eight bachelor's degrees, 10 master's degrees and seven certificates.

Courses would be delivered in variety of formats including Web-based and traditional classroom settings.

Designs call for a environmentally sound campus where everyone in the community will feel welcome to spend time either taking classes, wandering the paths between buildings, the campus' center green or exploring greenhouses, demonstration and master garden plots, and research labs.