Don’t Let Technology Overshadow Basic Learning, UI President Says

Interim University of Idaho President Tom Bell urged legislative budget writers Tuesday not to be so dazzled with high-technology delivery of education that they forget about traditional college learning.

Bell said the university is reaching out across the state to make programs available to those who cannot get to Moscow and wants to play a role in developing the virtual university concept the nation’s governors are pushing.

But, he told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, “the living and learning experience of a resident campus gives students access to quality professors and leaders.

“The University of Idaho is important to the economic development of this state,” he said. “Producing highquality graduates is the fuel for technology transfer and economic development.”

And the pressure in recent years to accommodate off-campus demands for education, particularly for engineering in Boise, has taken its toll from on-campus programs, Bell said. That situation has been aggravated by last summer’s 2 percent budget reduction imposed by Gov. Phil Batt to cope with Idaho’s slowing economy and reduced tax revenues.

That holdback cost the three universities and Lewis-Clark State College $3.5 million from this year’s already anemic $171 million state support package. That in turn prompted reduced class offerings and other cuts on the four campuses.

But while the holdback was accommodated this year, Bell urged lawmakers to restore the cash in the 1997 budget over Batt’s recommendation to make the cuts permanent and hold state support to $178.6 million.

That, Bell said, is especially important for the University of Idaho so the new president, who should be selected by next fall, can start his tenure looking forward rather than coping with budget reductions and reallocations.

If the cash is not restored and the pressure continues for expanding programs throughout the state, Bell said, “something’s going to give.”

Both Agriculture Dean David Lineback and medical education program director Mike Laskowski also said Batt’s austere budget plan would take its toll on their programs.

Lineback said that coupled with cuts in federal support, the research and extension program would be cutting over two dozen positions. Bell acknowledged that off-campus enrollment at Idaho is the fastest growing segment of the student body. And he said further technological advances - if coupled with improvements in infrastructure - will greatly expand programs such as the national exchange of engineering programs and the national technology university via satellite.

“Technology is going to improve our ability to do that,” he said. “But it is not going to replace the quality of our resident experience.”