Salaries at top of NIC legislative list

North Idaho College is asking legislators for the same ol’, same ol’ this session: More money for salaries.

Last year, the state gave NIC enough money to give employees just under a 2 percent pay raise. The college wrung enough money from its budget to boost employee pay even more. Employees saw an average 7 percent increase.

It was the first pay raise NIC employees received in two years and – averaged over that time – wasn’t enough to make up lost ground, the college told state legislators Tuesday. More than half of NIC employees are still below the midpoint for their profession.

Human Resources Director Brenda Smith told lawmakers gathered for NIC’s annual legislative luncheon that the amount of ground the college still has to make up puts salaries at the top of the college’s list of priorities.

“We want to recruit, retain the best people possible,” she said. Competitive salaries would help, she added.

Smith said turnover dropped 14 percent since last year’s round of pay increases. For those increases, though, Smith said the college made some sacrifices. No new full-time positions were created, so employees took on more responsibility.

Sen. Dick Compton, R-Coeur d’Alene, said the college won’t be the only institution or state agency this year asking for more money for salaries. All will be competing for a share of what is forecast to be a very meager budget.

Idaho’s one-cent sales tax will sunset in July, pulling more than $170 million out of the pot. Water issues in the southern part of the state could pull as much as $500 million from the state’s coffers, Compton said.

Despite the gloomy fiscal forecast, NIC made an enthusiastic pitch to the legislators Tuesday. The college wants money to help take some pressure off students, who have shouldered a nearly 30 percent tuition increase over the past three years.

Ashley Compton, NIC’s student body vice president, said she was afraid the college was in danger of pricing itself out of students’ reach.

“We understand going to college is going to cost money,” she said. “There is a threshold where accessibility becomes limited by affordability.”

The college’s legislative committee – which includes faculty, staff, administrators and trustees – presented legislators with a wish list that also includes increased funding for professional-technical programs and to help the college expand its services to other areas of North Idaho.

Michael Burke, NIC’s president, said additional funding for professional-technical education would be a boon to all of North Idaho. Only 46 percent of Idaho’s high school graduates go on to college, he said.

If the trend continues unchecked, Burke said it would be “a recipe for disaster” for the area’s long-term economic health.

He said most new jobs this century will require less than a baccalaureate degree, but more than a high school diploma. The college wants to add a handful of professional-technical programs this year to help meet the demand that’s already there, Burke said.

Adding the programs – radiological technology, outdoor recreational vehicle repair, landscape technology, human resources assistant, postsecondary welding and resort management – will require more space, more highly skilled instructors and more high-tech equipment, Burke said.

“It’s the direction we want to go,” Burke said, “but we need the fuel to go there.”

The college is also asking for $3 million to remodel Seiter Hall. Many of the classes currently held in Seiter Hall will be moved to the new Health and Sciences Building that is set to open in fall 2005. Burke said NIC needs to convert Seiter Hall’s lab space into regular classrooms.

He said a refurbished Seiter Hall would make it seem like the college had a second brand-new building.

The college is asking for $250,000 to improve security on campus by installing card-lock systems and another $240,000 to improve accessibility for the disabled to two buildings.

Rolly Jurgens, vice president for administrative services, said the college wants to add a wheelchair lift to Winton Hall so students can access classrooms in the basement. He said the bleachers in the college’s gym also aren’t easily accessible.

“If a person’s in a wheelchair, they have to be carried up the stairs or sit on the floor with the basketball players,” Jurgens said.

Tonight at 6, K-12 educators, school board members and parents will meet legislators at River City Middle School to share their legislative agenda.