Best News Yet: Sitka Fine Arts Camp to inherit campus

After the Dubuque deal fell through, the future of SJ(C?) was more uncertain than ever. Into that void stepped the Sitka Fine Arts Camp with a vision to transform the space into a permanent home for the camp and community centered spaces year round. From Raven Radio:

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SITKA, ALASKA (2011-01-05) It’s official: The core campus of the former Sheldon Jackson College is being transferred to the Sitka Fine Arts Camp. The arts camp, which runs programs for 500 students every summer, will take ownership of the central campus on Feb. 1. A ceremonial transfer will happen when the trustees hold their final meeting on campus March 12.

According to a statement from the college’s trustees, the name Sheldon Jackson will stay attached to the property to memorialize the history of what was once Alaska’s oldest educational institution. But the future will be up to the Arts Camp.

Sitka Fine Arts Camp Executive Director Roger Schmidt says he's fully aware of the work that needs to be done.

“There’s an unlimited amounts of deferred maintenance and repairs that need to happen, but the other thing we’re getting is a dream," he said. "And that I guess is really what’s motivated my board of directors, our organization, and all our kids – the idea of what we can do with the arts, and what we can do with community.”

The dream for the nearly 40-year-old arts camp includes North Pacific Hall, which can be used for housing.

“And then behind it is the old ceramics building," he said. "We hope to see kids doing art in there.”

And there’s Whitmore Hall and Fraser Hall, which have office and classroom possibilities. Whitmore also has housing space.

“This is Yaw (Hall), it’s a set of classrooms," Schmidt said. "I see an arts space, where our visual arts will be. I hope that into the future it can become a year-round type of arts cooperative place.”

The camp is getting the Hames building. It was home to a wellness center, but it closed after Sitka voters rejected a proposal to have the city buy it in October.

“We’ll certainly use it for our programs, because physical theater and social dance are really popular classes at camp and we need a large space like that. We do circus arts, we do acrobatics, things like that.”

Schmidt says he hopes the group that worked to keep Hames open will show interest in doing something with the building during the rest of the year.

At the center of the Quad, behind the flagpole, and the bell, and the plaque marking this place as a National Historic Landmark, is Allen Memorial Hall. An auditorium is inside. The camp is getting that, too.

Inside, walls have been stripped down to studs. When Sheldon Jackson College ran out of money, this building was under renovation. Work stopped immediately. There’s little doubt that re-starting that work will take some serious effort. But Schmidt also sees serious potential.

“Just looking at these beams, and these mammoth entryways – you don’t find ceilings that high anymore. They just don’t make them," Schmidt said, walking around on the second level of Allen Hall. "And it gives you this feeling of openness and expansiveness and, heck, creativity and inspiration. Why not?”

The Sitka Fine Arts Camp began its life on this campus in the early 1970s. The year before the college closed, the college asked the arts camp to leave.

“When we left, I think I probably even said the cliché, ‘Never again.’ We were really frustrated, it was a really tough time for us," Schmidt said. "We felt like we had been here for years and we were good tenants and we brought revenue in. All these things. But it was such a tumultuous time for the college.”

Eventually the camp found a home at Mt. Edgecumbe High School. The college, meanwhile, worked on ways to handle its closure, including a possible deal with the University of Dubuque. When those plans fell through, Schmidt said his friend Lisa Busch, who is executive director of the Sitka Sound Science Center across the street, suggested a meeting with one of the trustees, Gary Paxton, to discuss the possibility of taking over the core campus.

“And I’m sure my first response was ‘You’re crazy. I mean, just crazy. You can forget that idea'," Schmidt said.

But eventually, he was convinced to have the meeting. He says Paxton was an enthusiastic advocate from the beginning.

Schmidt and the arts camp board of directors spent three months looking at revenue models and business plans, and decided to give it a go. Schmidt says it’s hard to estimate how much money all of the repairs and renovations will take. But the organization will launch a capital campaign soon, and hopes to raise $500,000 before camp begins in June.

And while the talks to transfer the campus from Sheldon Jackson College to the arts camp happened between officials from the two organizations, the rest of this journey will be a community effort.

“It makes us think again as a community of the place as a campus, rather than just a couple buildings here and there,” Schmidt said. “And when I see the peeling paint and when I see the shingles, what I see by the patched shingles is a roof that’s not leaking right now because there’s a great maintenance guy that’s been working tirelessly. One man and a pile of shingles going up on that roof and patching that up leak. To me that’s inspiring. And when I talk to Ron, who’s been here a number of years, he says ‘I just love the place. I can’t stand to see it fall apart.’ And had it been another person who was just doing it for the money, they’d be like, ‘Y’know, that building’s just going to go to pieces anyway.’ And I feel like, if one guy, for the last number of years has staved off the elements singlehandedly, it’s almost impossible for me to conceive that with 50 to 100 people all pulling the sled together, or whatever cliché you want to use, we can’t keep that roof on for another couple years, that we can’t keep the place painted and we can’t keep the place patched. And if we can do those things, the buildings will survive. And as the buildings survived we can get them used, and as the buildings get used we can bring in revenue, and as we bring in that, then we can go from piecemeal patching – sort of a triage repair situation – to a long term maintenance and renovation vision.”
© Copyright 2011, Raven Radio Foundation Inc.

Hames PE Center falls short in election

I'll post the KCAW story shortly, but the gist is that all three Hames funding proposals were pretty soundly rejected by voters on October 5th.

The city has not commented on what may be next for the center.

SSSC Update

The SJ Hatchery and Ahlgren aquarium are alive and well - they are being operated by the Sitka Sound Science Center, which is dedicated to increasing understanding and awareness of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems of the Gulf of Alaska through education and research.

Some of our upcoming events this week are:

* Monday-Friday 10-12 AM and 2-4 PM: Aquarium and hatchery tours
* Tuesday, September 21 - 7:00 - 8:30 PM: free science seminar at the Sage building, by Cara Stepp, PhD, UW. Every Child is a Scientist: Engaging children in scientific thinking and reasoning through robotics and computer science.
* Thursday, September 23 - 7:00 - 9:00 PM at the Sage building: Synthetic Sea, Synthetic Me: Plastics in the Marine Environment. By our guest speaker, Anna Cummins of the 5 Gyres Project.
* Saturday, September 25, 8 AM: Allen Marine tour and beach cleanup, starting at Crescent Harbor (tickets for sale at the dock)
* Saturday, September 25, 1-2 PM: Activities and cleanup at Sitka National Historical Park.
* Sunday, September 26 - time and location TBA: Dockside cleanup.

All those who are interested in subscribing to the e-mail and / or snail mail versions of our newsletter, or in volunteering at the SSSC, can sign up by sending an e-mail to pnorwood@sitkasoundsciencecenter.org, or by simply coming to see us in the Sage building.

College officials look for "dignified end" to SJC

Hear the story here

SJ Child Care Center

The Sheldon Jackson Child Care Center has received a $300,000 grant from the Rasmuson Foundation that will allow the nonprofit organization to purchase the building.

Along with the board that was put together when the school closed Lolly Miller and her staff are heroes for all their hard work and dedication to the Child Care Center.

Raven Radio Link

Click here to hear the story of Dobler being fired

Dobler Out: Holst In

According the Sitka Daily Sentinel, June 17,2010 - Dr. Dobler is no longer SJ(C?) President, and is being replaced in the interim by John Holst, a former school superintendent and assembly member. Once I digest the article, I'll report on details.

Curiosity

Out of curiosity, how many people are still reading this blog? I’d be very curious to have people post why they still read the blog 3 years after the school closed. I’d also be curious to know how the reads was or is affiliated to SJC. If you are still reading the blog, please take a minute or two to leave a comment and let us know you are still reading, why you still read it and your affiliation to SJ. It is your option to sign the comment of leave it anonymously.

I know I still check in regularly because I cared deeply for the school, the students, the faculty, the staff, and most especially the volunteers. I also, still care deeply about what will happen with the campus.

Dubuque bows out

In a letter not becoming of a university president, Jeffrey Bullock announces Dubuque's decision to "step away" from a potential partnership with SJ(C?) and the city of Sitka. I don't blame UD for not wanting to proceed, but was surprised by the spirit of Bullock's letter, which engages in blaming "some SJC Board members" and city officials for the partnership's failure, while holding up Dr. Dobler as an ethical visionary and someone to be admired.

Really? It leads me to conclude that President Bullock was never able to fully appreciate and understand the complexities of what transpired here.

You can read the letter in its entirety below:

June 7, 2010.


To: The University of Dubuque Community

From: Jeffrey F. Bullock, President

Re: UD/Sheldon Jackson Partnership Status

I am writing, separately from my Summer Update letter which you will receive this week, to update you regarding Sheldon Jackson College (SJC) in Sitka, Alaska. I have sincerely appreciated the conversations and trips with members of our Board, cabinet members, and DNAS faculty while exploring the opportunity to take an extensive look at the possibility of a relationship between Sheldon Jackson College and the University of Dubuque.

It is clear to me, however, that our expectations for this project differ quite significantly from the expectations of some members of the Sheldon Jackson Board and, most particularly, the leaders of the City of Sitka. In my discussions with both groups, I have tried to lay out a roadmap for a long-term, vibrant, and renewed educational operation at Sheldon Jackson College. I have tried to demonstrate that UD was committed philanthropically, through a designated donor gift, to finish the restoration of a key building - Allen Hall, to develop an academic program plan, and to work through the Sheldon Jackson College Foundation which would help structure finances and provide opportunities for traditional and non-traditional programs, particularly to serve Native Alaskans. Granted, the nature of our program proposal was to begin small, understand the market, and then to grow as the opportunities were identified, rather than to replace one former model of educational enterprise with a similar model. The program model in our proposal is one that we have tested, tried, and implemented here at UD; and a model that we believed we could have implemented in Sitka.

It is clear to me, however, that the expectations of some members of the SJC Board are not in alignment with our plan which is, of course, their prerogative. It appears that they aspire to have an entity take over the SJC campus and, in effect, run it as it was previously run. Obviously, we do not believe this is the right way to pursue education in Sitka, but it is their campus and, as trustees, that is clearly and rightly their decision to make.

It is also abundantly clear to me that the officials representing the City of Sitka have absolutely no intention of trying to 1) understand our proposal, or 2) understand the very competitive nature of Higher Education. Truthfully, this is the most discouraging aspect of my disappointment. To go from a verbal commitment of significant dollars to what in effect amounts to a “maybe in the future” type of arrangement clearly illustrates, for me anyway, that the City officials do not understand either the importance or necessity of a private/public partnership in this regard. It also gives me great pause when I consider working with the City in the future. I have learned that if there is one constant in the very competitive business of Higher Education, it is this: Independent schools cannot compete with Regent or State-supported schools without the tangible support of their local and regional civic and political leadership. Alaska is full of state-sponsored education. There is a reason, then, why private schools such as UD are not in abundance in the State of Alaska. We absolutely could not find a way to mount a successful program in Sitka without both the financial and political support of the City officials.

I am proud to say - and I know that we all share in this sentiment - that, over the last ten years, the University of Dubuque has grown from an enrollment of under 600 to nearly triple that figure. Our annual operating budget has increased several-fold. We have added significant numbers of faculty and staff at a time when most colleges and universities are experiencing reductions in force, and the financial impact we have made to our local community has grown exponentially as well. Though not on the same scale, we had hoped to make a similarly positive impact in Sitka and, by extension, throughout Alaska. Unfortunately, we have to acknowledge that the conditions for programmatic growth and expansion on the SJC campus, or in the City of Sitka, do not exist in a way that would allow us to be both credible and successful.

Regretfully, we must at this time step away from the table.

Finally, I would like to also say that it has been a privilege to work on this project with SJC President David Dobler. David has comported himself in both an ethical and visionary way during a very difficult time in the history of SJC. He has endured ridicule in the community, derision in blogs posted by former disgruntled members of the faculty and staff, personal financial sacrifice and an uncertain professional future all for the purpose of trying to identify a new future for SJC. I, for one, both admire and respect him.

Know that we do wish the members of the SJC Board the very best as they chart out the best plan for Sheldon Jackson.

Dubuque Delays Decision on SJ(C?)

Radio Iowa reported last week that UD President Jeffrey Bullock has said the his college is not ready to decide on a future SJ(C?) partnership. The story goes on to say that he will report to his board in May, and a decision could be ready by the end of 2010.

Here's the link.

The Historic "Quad" to become a triad.

Efforts are underway to subdivide the Armstrong Building and Stevenson Hall from the rest of the campus. Stevenson is currently part of the quadrangle that includes North Pacific Hall, Whitmore Hall, and Fraser Hall, and is part of the historic landmark designation. Nancy Yaw Davis recently wrote a letter to the editor which noted that the change can take place without public input.

SJ(C?) given another year to pay off debt

A Sitka Sentinel article dated January 14, 2010 reports that Alaska Growth Capital has decided to hold off on foreclosure action for an additional year. Court documents state that SJ(C?) owes AGC at least $4.5 million plus 5% interest. A status hearing has been set for January of 2011.

AGC loaned SJ(C?) $4.7 million in June of 2006. SJ(C?) owes AGC $4.5 million now.

Dubuque doesn't need a Dean of Students

With the Dubuque visit to Sitka having just past, it seems that they have no use for Dean of Students (at least not this one) in their new plan for SJ(C?). Could it be my spotty employment history? =)

Reportedly, Dubuque visited the campus and spoke with interested folks who filled out a survey on the city's webpage. Present company excluded. Ahem.

I'll post info once the Sentinel or Raven Radio publishes anything new.

U of Dubuque to visit again

According to the January 5th addition of the Daily Sitka Sentinel officials from the University of Dubuque will be in Sitka the rest of this week and next to perform due diligence. U of Dubuque Vice President John Stewart will be accompanied by two faculty members, an architect and a building director. The condition of the campus buildings will be assed and faculty will be meeting with various Sitka residents who responded to the survey to determine how many academically qualified people might be interested in teaching. They will also be visiting the Sitka Sound Science Center in the Sage Building and will be meeting with the staff and board of that facility

Chris Bryner interview and extended audio at KCAW - Raven Radio

Following Raven Radio's interview with Dr. Dobler, it was my turn. Extended audio is here. There's is hope that an interview with Jeffrey Bullock, President of the University of Dubuque, will be available in the near future as well.

Dr. Dobler on Raven Radio

In the first of a series for Iowa Public Radio, KCAW's Robert Woosley interviewed Dr. Dobler and yours truly about the past, present, and future SJ(C?). Dr. Dobler's interview aired tonight, and I'm on Wednesday.

Also, comments are now moderated due to the spam we've been getting.

Poll deadline extended

Last week I added a poll to the blog (top right) to get a sense of what folks were thinking about a potential UD / SJ(C?) partnership that included Dr. Dobler and Trustees. I've since extended the deadline to November 13th.

Polls like these cannot be taken too seriously. Consider the biases of readers of this blog, for example. Many of us likely felt mislead by Dobler and company at the time of closing, so it only makes sense that the poll would skew as it does.

However, I do think it points to a potential problem UD may encounter in attempting to set up camp here. There is likely to be vocal opposition, or at least a lack of support, for any deal that doesn't signal a departure from the past.

Hmm...

On a recent virtual visit to the Unversity of Dubuque via their website, I came across the following:



Look familiar? It appears (if the site is up to date) that the former President of Sheldon Jackson College is a special assistant to the President of Dubuque. This could be a good thing, as Dr. Haaland is sure to be as aware of SJ(C?)'s strengths and weaknesses as anyone. Yet it may also signify that the future of the campus may indeed too closely resemble its past.

UD to get Alaska Outpost?

Here's a link to the article.

There aren't any revelations in the article, but of note: Dr. Dobler states that SJ(C?) will be giving the campus to UD should the deal go through. Does this mean that Trustees will no longer have a role? Not sure. Dobler's comments to the Chamber a few weeks ago seemed to suggest that he and Trustees were an active part of the future of the campus.

I come across like a cheerleader for the whole thing, which might be overstating things a bit! I am hopeful, like most people, that something good can come out of this partnership. I remain opposed to a scenario in which the Trustees play a role in the future of students. Time will tell...

Dubuque Times-Herald article

This coming Saturday's Dubuque Telegraph-Herald is scheduled to print an article about the potential Dubuque / SJ(C?) partnership. I was interviewed this morning and did my best to present the case that while many people here are supportive of Dubuque's efforts, some must have assurances that the mistakes of the past (termination without notice, students left without a school to attend) will not be repeated. The surest way to accomplish this remains, in my opinion, the exclusion of President Dobler and the Trustees from the equation.