North Island College in Campbell River is looking to build custom housing for students in its most popular programs.
Lisa Domae, college president, and Naomi Tabitha from Envision North Island spoke to council earlier this month about plans for a 220-bed student housing upgrade on site.
Domae says they are tailoring the for towards trades and technical workers, some who may also need family housing.
“At NIC here in Campbell River we have almost half of our students … in trades and technical programs,” she told council on Oct. 10. “So it’s really important to us to make sure that we’re really serving those students who have a very different model of housing than what you would normally think of in a post-secondary institution.
“Often they come for 12 weeks or eight weeks or something that’s not a semester-based program.”
The college is preparing a business plan to submit to the provincial government, they will have to compete with other projects for funding. However if approved, they hope to have the new housing built by 2029.
Council was enthusiastic about the project, and agreed to send a formal letter of support along with getting staff to look into other options to help move it forward.
