Learing, Teaching, Research, Service

L E A R N I N G TEACHING, RESEARCH, SERVICE

COMMUNITY IS ‘AT THE CORE’OF HIGHER EDUCATION

BY ALX STEVENS

COURTESY BOISE STATE UNIVERSITY

Any public institution is built for service to its community. That’s what President Marlene Tromp says about Boise State University, even before COVID-19 inspired the university to come up with even more ways to help the Treasure Valley. Lately, while building face shields for front line workers, researching coronavirus testing possibilities and updating a statewide COVID-19 cases map—among other projects geared for addressing the pandemic—the university has also been developing tiny pieces of technology that can be used in surgery to help people gain mobility despite physical ailments.

Additionally, multiple departments—biology, sociology, engineering and political science—all contribute to the purity of water and its possible outcomes.

“You can’t address that issue with just biologists; you need engineers, sociologists, political scientists ... you have to have an approach that cuts across many areas,” Tromp said.

“When you think about the impact it could make if we had breakthroughs, that’s life changing for the people it would affect,” she added.

That’s just a taste of what’s happening at Boise State, and we can’t forget institutionalized community service is also taking place at the Treasure Valley’s largest community college, College of Western Idaho.

Like the university it prepares many students to attend, College of Western Idaho extends its population, knowledge and facilities resources to the greater Treasure Valley community, impacting workforce development and economic growth to how each individual student will play a significant role in their communities.

“The college really pushes lifelong learning to students,” said Mark Browning, vice president of college relations. “And we encourage our employees to do the same. I think that makes good leaders; they learn how to learn and then they learn how to teach.”

Many at CWI thought they would be past the pandemic right now, back in classrooms full-time and resuming their annual service activities like neighborhood cleanup projects. Now, conversations around how to best support students and continue aiding the Treasure Valley are shifting.

“We’re planning [on] being in a pandemic in spring 2021,” Browning said. “If [you] start looking at one to two years long-term approach, ‘How do we keep involvement in local chambers and service organizations?’ That’s something we’ll be looking at with other community partners that are going to have the same challenges … because we’re all in it together.”

IT’S BUSINESS AS USUAL AT CWI

Despite the challenges and necessary adaptations posed by COVID-19, the College of Western Idaho continues to pride itself in affordable education for students and tailored service to the community.

CWI has a multifaceted approach to benefitting the local economy:

Offering dual-credit for high school students at $75 per credit compared to $139 per credit.

“Those who take dual credit, when they come to college, they’re better prepared ... and they complete in a better time frame,” Browning said. “We look at that as investing in Idaho.”

Consulting as an “expert resource” in various fields and with multiple institutions, such as for public transportation with Valley Regional Transit and business needs with Boise Valley Economic Partnership.

And, partnering with local businesses, such as St. Luke’s, Saint Alphonsus and Western States CAT, to prepare workforce ready graduates, and provide additional industry training that may not necessarily result in college credit.

Diesel technology/mechanics has been a really strong field for the past 10-15 years. After consulting with industry partners, CWI streamlined a two-year program into 13 months.

“We’ve made sure the content in that program is relevant to the industry and company that’s hiring those students,” Browning said.

“We’ve been very grateful to be part of a number of communities,” he added. “We’re very grateful for the support of the community but also the opportunities it provides us to participate, to be part of the community.”

BSU INNOVATES DURING COVID-19

When the pandemic ramped up, Boise State personnel immediately “snapped into action.”

As clasrooms were shifted entirely to digital platforms, university administrators essentially had one eye turned to student needs and the other to community needs.

While some students rely entirely on the campus’ internet, the Office of Information Technology took routers out of buildings and hung them in the parking lot near Ten Mile Arena so students could come onto campus and access Wifi without going into buildings.

Additionally, realizing that K-12 educators were struggling with such a challenge, Boise State’s College of Education rewrote online training materials to be applicable and available for those educators.

Boise State launched a brand new program called Bronco Gap year in fall 2020 that offers students guidance from a faculty member and time to get to know the university, explore study options, reflect on career goals and more at a low cost.

“We became aware a lot of students were going to struggle to come to school,” Tromp said. “Students who lost access to high school guidance counselors, who didn’t have encouragement (from) teachers to carry on, (that) left a lot of students adrift.”

A loss, hough, for both students and Treasure Valley residents during the pandemic, has been the athletics program.

“When I came to Boise State, on game day, everyone in town was in orange and blue, everyone had flags flying on their car, and it felt like such a community celebration,” Tromp said. “And that is something that I think we often don’t recognize as being this beautiful and fundamental way universities are really integrated and connected into communities.”

More information about Boise State’s Gap Year program and news around COVID-19 developments—among other information—is available at boisestate.edu. If you’re looking for information specific to current community service projects, the university is involved in, there’s a webpage for that as well—boisestate.edu/we-serve.

“What’s exciting to me about Boise State is the willingness and openness to serving in difficult times,” Tromp said. “The impact is felt in a hundred different ways all the time.”

(Left) Students consult together about nanotechnology at Boise State University. (Right) A student and an instructor work together in one of the College of Western Idaho’s computer labs. Computer Science is one of multiple programs at the College of Western Idaho.