Interest builds for 'Communiversity' concept

SANDPOINT — No one is using qualifying phrases like “instead of” or “apart from.” To the contrary, members of the local business, education and government communities are careful to note that they believe a proposed new plan for higher education will complement, not compete with, the Wild Rose Foundation’s pledge to build a University of Idaho campus here.

But with that plan on the back burner for more than two years now, excitement has shifted to a wholly different kind of university concept.

“It’s called a ‘Communiversity,’” said Connie Kimble, who oversees the individualized occupational training for the work-based learning program at Sandpoint High School. “It’s the same idea we’ve been talking about for years.

“The Wild Rose Foundation wanted to build a campus, but got stopped because of economic reasons,” she added. “In that case, a single entity would have driven things, but under this model, the community drives it.”

Kimble first heard about the Communiversity concept while attending an education seminar in Atlanta. The first such institution, she learned, got underway in 2005 when a Georgia firm called the Warren Featherbone Company donated 127,000 square feet of unused manufacturing space on seven acres of land to create a community learning center in Gainesville, Geo.

By the following year, the City of Gainesville had partnered with surrounding communities, as well as nearby Brenau University, the Lanier Technical College and the Georgia Power Company, to bring multiple financial and educational resources together under the single umbrella of the Featherbone Communiversity. Along with degree-oriented classes, the campus offered myriad continuing education and special interest courses, coupled with a business incubator that helped carry entrepreneurial dreams forward and an interactive children’s “Imaginarium” designed to spark a lifelong passion for learning.

Kimble returned from Atlanta convinced that she had seen the direction for higher education in her own community. 

Last fall, the first members of the Bonner County Consortium for a Regional Communiversity held an initial planning meeting. A second session on Jan. 4 drew 25 representatives from entities that included the University of Idaho, North Idaho College, Lake Pend Oreille School District and Bonner General Hospital.  Also in attendance were Panhandle State Bank, Horizon Credit Union, Bonner County Economic Development Corporation, Greater Sandpoint Chamber of Commerce, State Sen. Shawn Keough and the Idaho Department of Labor.

Using federal dollars from the Workforce Investment Act, the state labor department made funds available to help bring Featherbone Chairman Gus Whalen to Sandpoint as the keynote speaker for a communitywide presentation scheduled for Jan. 21, from 6-8 p.m. at the Panida Theater.

“This project was a perfect fit for the grant dollars, as the whole purpose is to better align workforce development, economic development and education and to look at how we can better diversify our economy so we are not too dependent on one particular industry,” said Vicki Isakson, who coordinates the labor department grants. “Expanding available educational opportunities is key to developing a trained and skilled workforce and the northern part of our region is a perfect place to do this.”

Sandpoint Mayor Gretchen Hellar views the prospect of an interdisciplinary, cross-generational education platform as something that could hold the city up as a place where lifelong learning is celebrated as part of the community fabric, giving it an advantage in terms of economic development and setting the stage for education-related tourism and conferences. 

“It is my hope that Communiversity, in part, focuses on identifying and utilizing the intellectual resources in this community, provides a venue where those resources can be shared, inspires others to share their gifts — be they academic or technical — and energizes the love of learning for learning’s sake,” the mayor said.

“If we can truly become known as a community that values learning, who knows what opportunities may present themselves, ranging from elder hostels to specialized conventions focusing on specific topics of interest,” Hellar continued. “Not only that, but industries that value and require a well-educated workforce will also be attracted.”

Karen Lanphear, who helped get the local Sandpoint Transition Initiative movement off the ground in 2008, also believes the innovative approach to higher education will put Sandpoint on the map. 

As only the second city in the U.S. to be named as a “transition community,” Lanphear pointed out, Sandpoint became an international model for change. If the Communiversity concept takes root, she added, it would join other cities — including Gainesville and Kansas City — as a model for new directions in college education.

“A big part of the Transition Initiative is what we call the Great Re-skilling – finding a way for our elders and young people to sit together and learn in the same place,” Lanphear said.  “It looks like this is it.”

The STI group has been holding meetings over the past two years aimed at tapping into the knowledge of the community’s elders to learn how to repair things when they break, build things rather than buy them, or grow food in native soil instead of purchasing it from agricultural conglomerates that ship their harvests from other countries. Although the various workshops, expert speakers and film presentations have kept interest alive, this latest wrinkle could be the thing that catapults things forward, according to Lanphear.

“When I found out about Communiversity, it was like dropping the last piece of catalytic material into the mix,” she said. “Working in collaboration with the people around us, this can be a one-stop shop for all aspects of learning.  Something like this celebrates the degree programs while it also honors lifelong learning.”

Developing what Lanphear describes as a Folk School to teach arts, crafts and other skills in the same environment that offers college credit courses is a fit that already works in other Communiversity locations, according to Kimble.

“It doesn’t have to look like a four-year degree,” she said. “It can be a paper-making class or a course in aviations mechanics. It can look like anything we need it to look like.”

Beyond that, it can look that way in a variety of locations, not just a single physical campus setting. Karl Dye, executive director for the Bonner County Economic Development Corporation, said the concept could be piggybacked with his agency’s own fiberoptic network grant proposal to benefit business and education.

“With that kind of network, you wouldn’t have to be in this place or that place — it could be happening everyplace at once,” he said. “Panhandle State Bank and Coldwater Creek have these fabulous resources in their training facilities that could be used as community classrooms and for distance learning.”

Across the board, business leaders, educators and government officials alike are holding fast to the dream of an eventual University of Idaho campus on the 77-acre parcel the Wild Rose Foundation proposes to use for the project on what has been the U of I Extension & Research Center on Boyer Avenue. 

The campus was to be funded primarily through foundation dollars contingent on the value of Coldwater Creek stock. During the eight-month period between when the foundation signed a memorandum of understanding with the U of I in February of 2007 and the announcement the following October that things were to be put on hold, the stock dropped from nearly $19 to below $8.50. It subsequently drifted under $1 at one point before reaching a closing price of $4.84 on Friday.

“The whole community was looking forward to what the Wild Rose Foundation was doing,” Dye said. “When that didn’t work out, a large group of people started thinking about what the next step should be.

“We see the Communiversity as something that is definitely complementary — an in-between step that we can take until the foundation is able to renew its plans,” he added.

Kimble hopes to see a packed house at the Panida for Thursday night’s community meeting on the plan. Lanphear, meanwhile, already is confident that the idea will find a home in Sandpoint.

“I think this is going to take off and it’s amazing what could happen when it does,” she said.

The labor department’s Isakson shares that impression, mostly because of watching the community in action over the past several months as she implemented the grant.

“It has become even more apparent to me that when a group of dedicated individuals get together to work toward a common goal, they can make it happen,” Isakson said. “There are always individuals who have information or connections to further the effort by who they know, what they know, or by putting their own personal time into making the project succeed. The enthusiasm from those involved with the Communiversity concept so far is contagious, and I just hope the rest of the community sees the benefit and gets on board.”