the HISTORY OF THE INTERCOLLEGIATE COLLEGE OF NURSING
In the early 1960s, registered nurses in the Spokane area proposed the consortium concept of a baccalaureate-nursing program. It would provide excellent educational opportunities for students in four institutions who were interested in offering a nursing program, but unable to do so independently. Established in 1968, this consortium has become a model nationwide for other colleges and universities interested in collaborating. The consortium currently includes one private (Whitworth University) and two public (Eastern Washington University and Washington State University) universities/colleges. Washington State University is the “parent” institution, providing fiscal and administrative oversight.
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The Intercollegiate Center for Nursing Education was first located in the city’s 1904 Carnegie Library building. The first class of 37 students entered in summer of 1969, and graduated in 1971. The program reached 200 juniors per year in 1973. In the late 1970s, the ICNE began outreach with baccalaureate education in Walla Walla, Tri-Cities, Yakima, and Wenatchee, with faculty traveling to each town or hired on-site. Faculty soon began video-taping classes to mail to each site.
The Center proposed and built the Magnuson Nursing Building on Fort George Wright Drive, occupying it in 1980.
In 1983, the Center added a Master of Nursing program, with majors in education and administration. We began offering further advanced programs in 1987, 1988, and 1990.
When WSU established a two-way television network to branch campuses in 1990, the Center added a BSN for registered nurse graduates of community
college or diploma programs, and expanded its offering to
Vancouver.
Two years later, we began asking the University for money to expand our building space, especially for the library and classrooms.
In 1999, the Center became the Intercollegiate College of
Nursing of Washington State University, and is known now
most often as the College of Nursing.
In 2002, the state legislature gave the University funds to design a new College of Nursing building on the Riverpoint campus in downtown Spokane. They gave the University an accelerated design period of only two years. The College formed a building committee and began working with the architects, Integrus from Spokane and LMN from Seattle, and the construction manager/general contractor, Graham Construction. The Regents accepted their design proposals and asked the legislature for construction money, which it awarded in 2005.
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