University Of Idaho Responds To Bsu Bid For Engineering Upset

The University of Idaho has responded to a Boise State University challenge with a statewide engineering education plan assigning special roles to Boise, Idaho Falls and the main Moscow campus.

Boise State has asked the state Board of Education for authority to establish its own engineering college. But University of Idaho President Elisabeth Zinser said Idaho would be better served if her school retains its statewide responsibility for engineering education.

Zinser released copies of an Idaho proposal that would give its operations at Boise and Idaho Falls their own areas of statewide responsibility. The Moscow university would invite faculty at Boise State and Idaho State University to have greater involvement in local decisions.

“I think we have taken a huge step to create a paradigm of an original and meaningful program for Idaho,” Zinser said.

Decentralization would play on the strengths each area offers, she said.

Boise, where most of Idaho’s high-technology industries are concentrated, would provide leadership in industrial support and technical assistance. Because many engineering students at Boise have different needs than those in Moscow, Zinser said, Boise also would take the lead in professional and continuing education.

The plan for Idaho Falls would take advantage of its proximity to the Idaho National Engineering Laboratory and that U.S. Department of Energy site’s links to universities around the nation.

Idaho Falls would host conferences and institutes that would explore national and international issues related to applications of engineering technology. The Moscow campus would provide leadership in graduate education and research.

Moscow would still cater primarily to undergraduates who are fulltime, traditional, residential students, according to the Idaho plan, while many of the engineering undergraduates at Boise and Idaho Falls would commute to school and hold down jobs.

In general, graduate students at Moscow would be oriented to careers in academics. Boise graduate students, some of them already working in their engineering fields, would seek further education in applied areas. And most of the graduate students at Idaho Falls would be INEL employees who need additional education to fill specialized work assignments.

The state Board of Education will consider the Idaho proposal, and those from Boise State and Idaho State, when it meets Jan. 26 in Boise.

The board already has approved a cooperative agreement between the University of Idaho and Boise State calling for $1.5 million to be spent over two years to bolster engineering education in Boise.

Also on the table is an offer from Micron Technology Inc. to give the state $6 million for engineering education, provided Boise State administers the engineering program in Boise.

The offer calls for $5 million to be used at Boise State and the other $1 million on engineering programs in Moscow, Pocatello or elsewhere.