Iḷisaġvik College has been planning a new campus for nearly 10 years. This week, the officials announced the college had bought land to build it on.
The new campus will sit on a 15-acre site near the Samuel Simmonds Memorial Hospital in Utqiaġvik, said Justina Wilhelm, the college’s president. The college bought the land from the Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, Utqiaġvik’s Alaska Native village corporation.
“This has been a long standing vision for the college,” Wilhelm said. “I’m very very excited that we have this prime location that will be a central gathering place for our people.”
Iḷisaġvik is Alaska’s only tribal college. It offers hands-on educational programs in such areas as Iñupiaq studies, allied health, construction and education to about a thousand students, in person in Utqiaġvik and remotely on the North Slope and across the state.
Right now, those programs are housed in buildings that were never meant to be a college. Wilhelm said the main building is a 70-year-old naval base 2.5 miles out of town. Overall, the programs are spread out between 13 different facilities.
“We're very excited to have this new campus to be under one roof, to all be together,” Wilhelm said.
Pearl Brower, the president and CEO of Ukpeaġvik Iñupiat Corporation, served as the college president until 2020. She said that Iḷisaġvik College has played an important role in life for her and other North Slope residents.
“I’ve seen firsthand how education grounded in Iñupiaq values can create opportunities for our people and strengthen our communities,” Brower said in a statement. “Seeing this vision for a future campus move forward is incredibly meaningful because it represents an investment in future generations of students, in our culture, and in the long-term strength of our region.”
The college’s next step will be completing environmental assessments and updating the 2018 design for the new campus, Wilhelm said. Construction will start with administrative offices, housing and workforce development garages. Down the road, the plan is to have more housing and a big wellness gym, she said.
The plan for the new campus includes open spaces that inspire conversations and collaboration. One vision is a glass wall between the main entrance and cafeteria, overlooking the construction trades and community outreach classrooms. Wilhelm said the idea is that students at lunch can also observe some of the cultural and workforce programs available at the college.
“It's so vital that we're here to provide the spaces and provide the classes to allow for our traditions to carry on,” When people come there, they're going to want to be a part of there. I hope they don't want to leave.”
College officials didn’t share the exact timeline for the construction. They said work is ongoing to secure funding for the next steps.
The college recently started offering classes at a facility in St. Paul.
This story has been updated.
