Flathead Valley Community College announced Friday that creating a university center on the Kalispell campus is a top board of trustees priority in response to community, business and industry interest.

In an interview, college President Karas said this center would provide dedicated space for college and university partners to offer more upper-division classes for four-year and graduate programs in the Flathead Valley.  

“They would be FVCC students for the first two years and it would be seamless for them to transfer to whatever programs just as they do now,” she said. “A lot of students take the first two years of nursing and then they become MSU nursing students but they don’t have to move.”

According to Karas, many community colleges have a center dedicated to four-year and graduate program completion. She said the Chamber of Commerce and a number of college employees have made visits to communities similar to the Flathead Valley to look at business and education models.

“In the higher education center, a lot of the classes are offered physically on site,” she said. “So it wouldn’t just be through an interactive video teleconferencing call or through an online class. But actually there would be a faculty member in the classroom with the students who are working together.”

 This concept would expand the existing upper-level degree programs in nursing, business, education, social work and public administration offered via distance and online education. Karas said the first step would be identifying which programs to expand and develop and then find the space to group upper-level programs together in a center.

“It could potentially be a separate classroom building, but that might be in the future,” she said. “We certainly could dedicate some space. We’ll look at how we can do that whether it’s space in current buildings or if it’s a new building.”

She said this could happen quickly.

Karas said the trustees and college want to work with the university system and private colleges to find additional affordable opportunities for people of the Flathead Valley and Northwest Montana to finish four-year and higher degrees. She doesn’t see this as an interim step toward creating a four-year college here.

“I think actually this is a more cost-effective way to provide educational opportunities for the taxpayers,” she said. “We have a number of excellent four-year colleges and universities in the state. If we can partner with those that are already in existence, it’s much more cost-efficient than building a whole new college.”