NAMPA — The College of Western Idaho convened the Legislature's most powerful committee Wednesday afternoon.
After a packed lunch, university officials presented a law enforcement training class on one side of town. They then bused the lawmakers across town to a strip mall for a walking tour of several career-skills programs offered at the renovated Sam's Town. At a final stop a few blocks from the strip mall, they gave a quick update on one of CWI's larger construction projects: the new Health and Science Building.
The whirlwind journey was no accident.
“In fact, in some cases, this is exactly what our students need to do,” CWI president Gordon Jones told lawmakers. “We imitated it.”
CWI's guests were members of the Legislature's Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, which is responsible for writing budget bills for all state agencies, including Idaho's four community colleges. University officials spent the afternoon highlighting CWI's remarkable growth and the challenges that have come with it.
Approved by Ada and Canyon County voters in 2007, CWI currently serves 30,000 students. “It’s a rocket ship.” Jones said.
With this growth, Idaho's largest community college has entered the space race. Administrators gobbled up rental properties to be used as temporary classrooms. However, this is expensive for universities and inconvenient for students. Jones said distributed education is “anonymous.”
CWI is gradually moving away from leasing its buildings. For example, the university owns a renovated Sam's Club retail site and rebranded it as the Micron Education Center. CWI's prime Nampa site – 100 acres, mostly undeveloped, including an abundance of soccer fields – provides a canvas for the future campus.
With state funding, several projects have begun to fill the void.
The Health and Science Building is scheduled to open next fall, providing new purpose-built laboratory space and consolidating related but dispersed programs under one roof. Nearby, a 40-acre horticultural site and agricultural science museum are also about a year away from completion. The student learning hub, scheduled to open in 2026, will include a library, bookstore, tutoring and other student services.
Elsewhere in the CWI, demand is squeezing production capacity.
Mike Wheeler, a self-described “old welder,” currently heads CWI’s Manufacturing and Welding program at the Micron Training Center. Staff and space are obstacles to growth. He's worried about finding instructors to fill three positions and finding room for more welding students if they decide to stick around for second-year advanced classes. Meanwhile, other students were placed on the waiting list.
“My biggest concern right now is that we’re not getting students,” Wheeler said.
Also on the ground floor of the Micron Education Center, CWI's automotive service program appears to fit the definition of an in-demand career. After investing $17,000 over two years, graduates can leave with an associate's degree, the tools needed to do the job, and a nearly guaranteed job in the Treasure Valley or elsewhere. Department Chair JohnD Thompson is preparing for the student surge through Idaho Launch, a fledgling program that provides up to $8,000 to high school graduates to pursue in-demand careers.
“We are trying to find a solution,” Thompson told JFAC members.
Once launched, more students will join CWI, especially for programs like welding and auto repair.
Already, 943 students have accepted Launch Grants, which CWI plans to use this fall, State Board of Education Executive Director Matt Freeman told budget writers Wednesday morning. This number exceeds the number of new students enrolled at CWI a year ago, before the Launch grant became available.
The $70.8 million launch program has received broad, bipartisan support at JFAC, and on Wednesday, Rep. Clay Handy weighed in on the launch program. Handy, R-Burley, asked Jones if CWI could add more launch-focused classes by maximizing its learning facilities and limiting the number of students on the waitlist.
Jones did not commit. CWI already offers three welding sections per day and said it is pausing due to liability risks associated with the added 2 a.m. welding class.
JFAC's Senate co-chairman, C. Scott Grow, R-Eagle, posed a long-running question to Jones. After 15 years of rapid growth, what will the next 15 years hold?
Jones said his staff is already talking about the monumental milestone of surpassing 50,000 students. Growth is unlikely to slow, and university leaders are talking about ways to accommodate 50,000 students on a tight budget.
Jones crunched the numbers. About 76% of state taxes spent on higher education go to Idaho's four four-year schools. Community colleges share the remaining 24%, including about $20.8 million paid to CWI this year.
But while community colleges receive about a quarter of the state's higher education funding, they serve about half of the state's higher education student population.
“Does that reflect where the ball is going?” Jones asked.