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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

President outlines his vision for UI

Rebecca Boone Associated Press

BOISE – University of Idaho President Tim White unveiled a plan Friday to cut $4.5 million from the school’s operating budget and focus remaining funding to support five goals.

“Let’s roll up our sleeves and get it done,” he said in a phone interview. “We need to get our financial houses in order, but much more exciting is the investment that’s going to occur.”

White’s “Plan for Renewal in People, Programs and Place” is designed to balance the school’s struggling budget and help the university better serve the needs of the state, he said.

To carry out the plan, he said the school would have to focus spending in five areas: research science and technology, the liberal arts and sciences, entrepreneurial innovation, environmental stewardship, and sustainable living through the arts and architecture.

Administration will be downsized, he said, but athletics – and the university’s participation in NCAA Division I-A – will be left alone.

Idaho’s athletics program is the “way in which people see the university – the university’s front porch or picture window. I want that attention to be positive attention,” White said. “It’s important for us to raise our level of visibility and success, and it supports student life and the campus experience.”

White’s plan was based in part on a report made last fall by the Vision and Resources Task Force, a group he charged with making broad suggestions about the long-term future of the land-grant university.

While many of the budget cuts would be directed at administrative and other non-instruction costs, White said, he acknowledged that some majors or degrees may also be eliminated.

“I want us to do things that are important to Idaho and the world, rather than just things that we wake up and decide to do,” White said. “We need to make a better impact at a lower cost, competitively judge the ideas that are the very best and invest money in them over time.”

Programs promised continued funding under White’s plan include the biosciences and environmental programs.

“People here are studying how viruses and bacteria grow in different human cavities. We have faculty in chemistry and physics working at the very cutting edge of nanotechnology,” he said. “When you think about the landscape here, we have industries like forestry and agriculture and mining and tourism. How do we optimize those in a way that Idaho continues to be Idaho? How do we inform policy-makers and the people who are making decisions about Western issues?”

White also pledged support for programs that promote entrepreneurship or aid in the design of Idaho communities. Finally, he said, liberal arts and sciences needed strong support.

“They are the core of ethical, creative, problem-solving thinking that is the basis of a great university,” he said.

White said he hoped the plan would help solve financial struggles caused partly by the botched University Place satellite campus project in Boise.

The $136 million, multibuilding complex was seen by many university advocates as critical to maintaining the school’s clout against the rising influence of Boise State University.