Associated Students of Boise State University came to the capitol today to highlight inequities in university funding - the students said BSU gets only 67 percent of the per-student funding that the University of Idaho gets. "I want to be clear: This is not an attack on the State Board of Education, the Idaho State Legislature, or any other Idaho college or university," said ASBSU President Stephen Heleker. "We understand that the current funding inequity is not the result of malice or favoritism, but is largely the result of a difficult economic environment combined with a period of unprecedented growth at Boise State." You can read an account here in the BSU student newspaper, the Arbiter; some of the students wore buttons that said "2/3 of a Vandal."

When Hellaker spoke at a Statehouse press conference, he also was asked about today's House passage of HB 222, the guns-on-campus bill. The ASBSU passed a resolution on Monday opposing the bill, he said. "We believe that universities and colleges in Idaho need to have the role to control or not control firearms, based on their own best practices" and on student safety, Heleker said. He noted that campus security officials have extensive training on the issues involved in campus safety, and said lawmakers, who may not,  "shouldn't make that call for us as students."