November 27, 2006 in City

UI president focuses on image amid tightening budget

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BOISE – Tim White sits for a breakfast of blueberry yogurt, a cup of coffee – no refills – and granola, an exemplary meal in the new diet that limits him to fewer than 15 grams of saturated fat per day.

More than two years ago, the University of Idaho president was tapped to maneuver the school past unprecedented budget shortfalls and a battered image in the wake of the botched University Place land deal. But a month before his first day, White suffered a heart attack and underwent quintuple bypass surgery.

Now, after personal recuperation and the uneasy process of introducing spending cuts, slashing benefits and reshaping the university, White is spearheading a top-to-bottom image overhaul.

This fall, the school introduced a glossy new advertising campaign, painting the university behind a Western backdrop under the slogan “Open Spaces, Open Minds.”

For White, it’s a symbolic purge and a major step toward righting the state’s flagship institution.

“I’ll be real clear: The university I inherited had lost its business focus,” he said. “It overspent its budget and was not fulfilling its core missions. Once I figured this out, I had to take some strong measures.”

The university trimmed staff and left flower beds unplanted. During winter snowfalls, several stairways are not cleared. White figured he should not spend on tulips what he could direct toward research such as the school’s new $5.5 million investment in the study of water, bioethics and three other disciplines.

Idaho’s famously thrifty Legislature does not offer bailouts, especially as the University of Idaho competes with Boise State University’s push for more research dollars and master’s programs and a statewide plan to pay for more community colleges.

“If we had more resources, we could invest in a lot of things and there would be a huge return,” White said. “But, we are not Rodney Dangerfield University. It’s not ‘woe is us.’ ”

Still, fall enrollment dipped 5.9 percent this year compared to last year’s count of students during the first 10 days of school – from 12,476 to 11,739 students. And there is grousing that Boise State’s stated goal to transform from a commuter college to a first-tier research university could dent the University of Idaho’s standing as the state’s top school and largest recipient of state money.

White seeks to put the commercial and academic goals of Boise State University in context, while offering that he is “ready for partnership.” The University of Idaho is ranked high above Boise State based on its academic offerings and research spending.

“The criteria of categorizing a research university is based on degrees given – it’s not an arbitrary thing,” White said.

But White is far from a campus elitist. He was born in Cordoba, Argentina. His father was a gaucho and a cabinet maker.

As Juan Peron’s power grew as president of Argentina, White’s father became disgusted that the country’s education ministry rewrote school textbooks to glorify Peron.

He pretended to be a “peronista” to win favor with the bureaucrats who could provide immigration papers. Once selected, the family boarded the S.S. Brazil for the United States, but they were rejected at the Port of New York City.

They went to Calgary, Alberta, where White’s father worked in a cement factory.

By the time White was in high school, the family had moved to Berkeley, Calif. White was poised to become the first member of his family to enroll in college. He was admitted to the prestigious University of California at Berkeley, but on his father’s limited income, he had to enroll in Diablo Valley Community College.

He excelled at water polo and set his sights on becoming a coach, getting a master’s degree in teaching. Soon after, White realized he didn’t want to spend his “life on a pool deck” and went for his Ph.D. in exercise physiology at Berkeley.

He’s been in academia since, rising to a dean and acting president at Oregon State University. There, he became friends with Dennis Erickson, the former NFL and national-championship-winning coach at University of Miami.

Erickson piloted Oregon State to a win in the Fiesta Bowl, and White wore that season’s ring when wooing his old friend to coach the Vandals this season.

Life is completing a circle for White off the football field, too. Two of his four sons – the others are an engineer in Washington and a 2-year-old – are enrolled at Diablo Valley Community College, where White took his first college classes.

“It all comes around, I guess,” he said.

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