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UI group to file report on cutting costs

University of Idaho President Tim White, shown last year talking to reporters, faces a balancing act.University of Idaho President Tim White, shown last year talking to reporters, faces a balancing act. (File/File/ / The Spokesman-Review)
Associated Press
University of Idaho President Tim White, shown last year talking to reporters, faces a balancing act.University of Idaho President Tim White, shown last year talking to reporters, faces a balancing act. (File/File/ / The Spokesman-Review)

MOSCOW, Idaho – University of Idaho President Tim White’s special task force on dealing with the school’s deficit is working into the weekend in anticipation of delivering its cost-cutting recommendations by Sept. 20.

Although three weeks beyond its original deadline, Vision and Resources Task Force leader Monte Boisen said the 25-member panel is taking the time it believes necessary to come up with viable recommendations to deal with as much as $36 million in red ink over the next several years.

The school’s administration has not been involved in the deliberations that have run through the summer, but White said he anticipates recommendations that evaluate the university’s various programs and departments in terms of their cost and impact.

Operations with comparatively high costs and low importance to the university experience would be the first to be eliminated in favor of those that generate revenue or run at relatively low costs, White said.

But at the same time, he said, departments such as philosophy and history, which provide high value to the university culture regardless of cost or lack of revenue potential, should be preserved.

“Yes, we are a business, but that’s not the only way we conduct ourselves,” White said.

Balancing cost and value is the critical issue facing the task force composed of faculty members, Provost Brian Fisher said.

“The task force must first evaluate where the university needs to be,” Pitcher said.

Boisen, a mathematics professor, said White will share the task force report with key members of his administration before making it public. Decisions on cuts will be made after that, he said.

The university has already made some budget reductions to deal with a decline in state support and mounting pressure to hold down student fee increases, both aggravated by the botched University Place project in Boise.

The task force has cost the school about $300,000 – almost two thirds of that to pay the members $7,500 each for their work and the rest for a facilitator, office manager and expenses.