In brief: ISU wants more international students

Idaho State University is looking outside the state and even overseas to increase diversity and boost sagging enrollment.

President Arthur Vailas said ISU plans to set up recruiting networks anywhere there’s a concentration of ISU graduates.

“We’re creating a network in the Phoenix area,” Vailas told the Idaho State Journal. “We have alumni there who are very influential business people.”

Vailas said the school is also hoping to entice students from India and other countries.

ISU enrollment dropped from 14,361 to 13,929 students last year, after a decade of increases.

Only 9 percent of the school’s students come from outside Idaho. University officials would like to bring that up to 30 percent by 2020, said Barbara Adamcik, ISU associate provost.

By comparison, Montana State University has 32 percent nonresident students.

– Associated Press

Boise

Bikini bar expansion also boosts regulation

City staff are supporting a request to expand a bikini bar because that would allow the city to impose certain conditions on the business, including a security guard.

Neighbors have opposed previous expansion proposals put forward by the owner of the Torch 2 bar.

Boise’s zoning does not allow bikini bars within 1,000 feet of schools or 300 feet of homes. The Torch 2 is within 50 feet of homes, but it predates the city’s Adult Entertainment ordinance.

“If it’s basically not compatible with the neighborhood, you are going to have disinvestment and deterioration,” John Gannon, president of the Depot Bench Neighborhood Association, told the Idaho Statesman.

– Associated Press

Okanogan County, Wash.

Woodinville teen drowns in Alta Lake

A teenager from Woodinville, Wash., drowned Saturday in Alta Lake State Park, the Okanogan County Sheriff’s office said.

Brandon A. Irby, 16, had been with a church group at the lake, four miles southwest of Pateros. Deputies and emergency responders were summoned about 6 p.m. after learning the boy was last seen diving in the lake and hadn’t surfaced.

The boy’s body was recovered about 30 minutes later in 18 to 20 feet of water. He was taken to Okanogan-Douglas District Hospital in Brewster where crews were unable to resuscitate Irby.

From staff reports