Panel Debates Revamping Of Higher Ed

The Idaho Legislature plans to spend up to $100,000 studying the possibility of a chancellor system for higher education, but a former education official says it isn’t the answer.

Jerry Evans, former state superintendent of public instruction, was among those taking part Thursday night in a statewide callin show, “Dialogue,” telecast by Idaho Public Television.

Adding a chancellor, and the expensive bureaucracy that would go along with it, would do nothing to solve the problems of higher education, said Evans. He left office in January after 16 years as Idaho’s top education official.

The program centered on the Legislature’s interim committee studying higher education governance. Also on the show were committee co-chairman Rep. Ron Black, R-Twin Falls, and the new president at Lewis-Clark State College, James Hottois.

Evans said it would have been much easier to establish a single-university system at the very beginning. But when you begin dealing with alumni and the loyalties people have developed, it would be difficult to change names and bring all institutions under the University of Idaho umbrella.

As president of Eastern Oregon State College, Hottois worked under a chancellor system. It has to do with more than just alumni groups, he said, it has to do with the identity of each institution.

“It’s difficult to sell the institutional identities under a single-university system,” Hottois said.So far, Black said, the committee is just gathering information on the idea.How effective the current structure is depends on who you ask, Black said.

Gov. Phil Batt encouraged studying the possibility of moving toward a single-university system.