Excitement is building at the College of the Rockies (COTR) as the college prepares to make a “historic announcement” June 16 about its 35th anniversary year.

The announcement will be made 1:30 p.m. Wednesday in the college cafeteria, according to the invitation sent out by COTR President Dr. Nick Rubidge.

Nothing else has been said about the nature of the announcement, but in an interview after the COTR Board meeting June 10, Rubidge said the future looks bright at the college despite the enrolment decline at the high school level.

“We get only about 20 per cent of our student body straight out of high school so while the high school grad classes may have been declining we’ve also been working very hard to get a higher percentage of those who graduate.”

Ironically the recession has helped COTR to do this because as the economy declines there is a tendency for many young people to go back to school for more training in order to catch the next upswing of the economic cycle, Rubidge said.

“To some extent that softened the impact of the declining enrolment in the high schools,” he said.

Another factor that has contributed to a strong enrolment level at the college is that when the economy was hot two years ago some students left early in order to make money and now they’re coming back, Rubidge said. “Now in their mid-20’s and early 30’s, they come back to us and so we now have a big pool of potential students for us.”

Rubidge said the $12.7 million upgrade now well underway at the college is another cause for excitement on the campus. The upgrade will result in a new front entrance, which will house a new Reception area, Student Services, and Registration office.

In the meantime, many instructors and staff have had to move their offices into temporary quarters in Summit Hall. But they should be back in their regular digs by September for the fall term. “Then hopefully in early October the rest of the main structure that you can see from the street will be completed,” he said.

The “main structure” includes the spectacular new front entrance foyer which will soar high above students and staff in a modified “v” shape as people access the rebuilt college from the parking lot.

“The college has come a long way in 35 years,” said Rubidge, who was an administrator at the facility for the first two years when it was known as East Kootenay Community College. Rubidge recalls the time with fondness.

“My first office at the time was in the Tudor House Nurses’ Residence. It was the only time in my life when I had an office with a private washroom.”

As COTR continues go grow, the day may come when the college becomes a degree-granting facility like has happened with Thompson River University in Kamloops and Okanagan College in Kelowna, Rubidge said. An amendment to the Colleges Act two or three years ago made this possible, he said.

“We’re going through the process of trying to design that. We’ve been talking about it for quite a while and we’re going through the process of designing it and seeking approval.”

The initiative is still in the early stages, but when it happens the degree would likely be in the field of sustainability. Rubidge said. COTR already offers programs leading to degrees in teaching and nursing, but this is done in partnership with other degree-granting institutions, he said.