UI financial chief looks to students for help

MOSCOW, Idaho — The man charged with stabilizing the University of Idaho’s troubled financial picture believes students must pay more and is soliciting the state Board of Education’s cooperation.

“We need to work with the board and with the students to work on that area,” University Financial Vice President Jay Kenton told the Faculty Council this week. “We need to approach this from a rational standpoint.”

Despite a number of dramatic program cuts already, Kenton still faces millions of dollars in red ink created by years of deficit spending, plunging state support and the fallout from the botched University Place development in Boise.

But while state support for higher education has dropped by a third in the past 20 years, Kenton cited national statistics that rank the state 14th in support for its colleges and universities “so I think the state has done her fair share.

“However, on the tuition side, we’re on the other end,” he said.

In addition to raising student fees another 10 percent for the 2005-2006 school year, Kenton said the school must look at the scholarships and fee waivers it grants at a loss of as much as $19 million a year.

“If you collected every dollar,” he said, tuition and fees “would amount to $50, $55 million.”

The university now collects $36 million in annual tuition and fees as students cope with sharply escalating costs. Undergraduates are paying $3,632 in fees this school year, up from $2,348 five years ago.

Kenton has pledged to involve faculty, students and other interests in the budgeting process, and he said he has already opened discussions with student body President Isaac Myhrum.

Myhrum did not immediately respond on Wednesday to a telephone request for comment.

A study released this week by the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education found Idaho ranked higher than 36 other states in the affordability of its public universities. But the study faulted the state for providing very little help through need-based scholarships to students from middle- and low-income families facing skyrocketing fees. It found college costs in Idaho amount to 22 percent of average family income, up four points from a decade ago.

Still Kenton told the faculty leaders that the school must begin laying the groundwork for state board approval of a fee hike of up to 10 percent for 2005-2006 school year. He said the cash is needed to avoid even deeper cuts than those likely to be proposed later this month by a special university task force.

Prospects for success were unclear since the board rejected a similar request last winter, limiting the fee increase for this school year to 8.5 percent.

Boise State University was capped at 8.3 percent and Idaho State University at 7.3 percent. Board members said they were trying to balance the need for additional revenue with student ability to pay.