CHA PT ER 3
THE COLLEGE COMES INTO ITS OWN
1935-39 C oeur d'Alene Junior College might have perished had it not been for the perseverance of Orrin E. Lee, the last president of Coeur d'Alene Junior College and first president of North Idaho Junior College, the last president to preside in City Hall and first to bring NIJC to its new home on the tribe's ancient ground, the gathering place. A former student of Ricks College with bachelor's and master's degrees in education from the University of Idaho, Lee was selected by the board of directors because he had attended a junior college and still had deep connections with the University of Idaho. For the next three years, President Lee fought on two educational battlefronts to save his new charge, eventually solving the problem of low enrollment and campaigning successfully for a bill before tl1e Idaho state legislature designed to provide tax dollars for junior colleges. Meanwhile, students, blissfully unaware of the battle in their midst, flocked to barn dances, ice-skating parties, and tugs-of-war. They even stood up to the faculty on November 11, 1936, when a majority of CJC attendees signed a petition demanding suspension of Monday afternoon classes on Armistice Day. Although some faculty objected, the students quickly overruled them. At the school year's end, the i936 25