IDAHO FALLS — It was a rainy day Thursday afternoon, but that didn’t dampen the crowds inside the new Future Tech Building on the College of Eastern Idaho campus, as government leaders and community partners addressed the crowd.
Gov. Brad Little, Lt. Gov. Scott Bedke, Sen. Jim Risch, Idaho National Laboratory Director John Wagner, Frontier Credit Union CEO Dan Thurman and CEI President Lori Barber spoke at the ribbon cutting celebrating the milestone of the college.
In Little’s address, he mentioned a nuclear renaissance in the country and explained the INL’s needs being served by the college and their new building.
Later, Wagner explained there’s opportunity for the area with the new building.
“I think he sees that CEI is willing to listen when the lab says here’s what we need and then build programs around what that need is,” Barber said.
The college seeks to enhance their learning models with this new building.
CEI looks for ways to be more innovative in the classroom. Much of that comes from hands on learning.
“We don’t have to do education the way it’s been done the past 100 years. That is the beauty of getting to build a brand-new college,” Barber said.
CEI plans to make the learning process at the school fast and efficient, to provide the areas and job markets with competent professionals.
“How can we enroll them, get them through their program in the least amount of time as possible with the most knowledge possible, with the least amount of cost.”
Barber says she wants people that visit CEI to realize the school is doing something different.
One thing that’s different is the school has a new Engineering Transfer Degree which is the only of its kind in the state of Idaho. This program graduates students with not only their general studies credits, but also a load of engineering credits.
Most associate programs graduate students with around 36 credits. Many additional credits are needed for engineering students which aren’t offered with the general classes, such as math and science. With this new degree, engineering students can transfer as juniors.
“We went to the State Board of Education with this new engineering degree, they approved it, and now we feel like that is very innovative,” Barber said.
In the summer of 2017, Eastern Idaho Technical College, became CEI. According to CEI.edu, the school has seen a 244% increase in credit enrollments since CEI was born. Barber has been with the college since 2019, and she’s seen the growth first-hand.
“From 2017 to 2026, we grew by almost 4,000 on the same size campus. So, you can imagine how excited we are to open this new facility,” Barber said.
For years, EITC served the community, helping people with trades. For professional degree programs, nearby schools like Idaho State University or BYU-Idaho offered those programs for the area.
Barber feels it was time for Idaho Falls to get the college.
“The people of this region knew it was time for a community college,” Barber said.
CEI offers technical degrees, but also associates, nursing, engineering, cybersecurity and many other degrees. Many degrees come because of high demand student interests and area needs.
The college has a direct impact on the needs of the community.
“We are going to business and industry. We’re asking them what they need: who are the employees that they need, what kind of training do they want those employees to have,” Barber said.
The new building opened this week for classes as CEI started its first week of fall term.