Idaho State president to step down early after faculty senate no-confidence vote
Boise Idaho State University President Richard Bowen will leave his job early following a vote of no-confidence from the school’s faculty senate.
Bowen announced Tuesday that he is working with the state Board of Education to come up with an appropriate departure date. Bowen, 71, was due to retire in June. He declined to comment directly Tuesday on the faculty vote.
“There will be a big celebration on the campus and in the community,” said ISU Engineering Professor Sadid Habib, a longtime critic of Bowen. “This is what I have been waiting for 17 years.”
Bowen has said in the past that he would leave the job if the faculty senate ever gave him a vote of no confidence, said ISU spokeswoman Libby Howe.
That vote came Monday from faculty members who were angered over pay raises as high as 28 percent that were approved earlier this year for 36 ISU administrators. No-confidence votes also were taken against Bowen’s top administrators, Financial Affairs Vice President Ken Prolo and Chief Budget Officer Leo Herrman.
Prolo and Herrman haven’t announced plans to leave the school, Howe said Tuesday.
The pay raises for administrators totaled about $350,000. ISU officials said they were instituted to bring pay levels more in line with national averages and assist in recruiting new administrators.
Faculty members received raises too, but they were much smaller. Some faculty members said ISU budget officers had told them the school didn’t have enough money to give them larger raises.
Bowen “lied to students and faculty,” said Habib. “Faculty asked for salary raises, and he said there is no money.”
The chairwoman of the faculty senate, Kay Christensen, said Tuesday that she couldn’t comment on Bowen’s departure because she hadn’t yet been told about it by the administration.
Bowen authorized raises that boosted Prolo’s pay to $165,006 and Herrman’s pay to $110,011, according to Howe. Bowen’s annual salary of $166,892 is set by the Board of Education, which approved a 1 percent increase earlier this year.
Bowen has been president of Idaho State for 21 years. The university has undergraduate and graduate programs in Pocatello and at centers in Idaho Falls, Twin Falls and Boise.
Equipment taken from construction site
A Bobcat tractor was reportedly stolen from a construction site last weekend.
According to Coeur d’Alene police reports, employees left the tractor belonging to All West Hardscapes, Inc. at a construction site in Coeur d’Alene on Friday. An employee reported the tractor stolen after arriving at work Monday morning.
The employee told police there were tractor tracks leading through the dirt lot and onto the road. He told police that he believed someone loaded the tractor onto a trailer and hauled it away.
Rob Perkins, owner of the company, estimated the value at $17,000.
Winton Elementary observes 80th birthday
Winton Elementary School, 920 LaCrosse in Coeur d’Alene, is celebrating its 80th birthday during an open house Thursday. Former students are invited from 5 to 7 p.m.
For information, call Winton Elementary at (208) 664-3440.
Two windows at school broken by vandals
Two windows at Coeur d’Alene’s Borah Elementary were broken by vandals late Friday or early Saturday morning, according to police reports.
Police found several bottles of Mike’s Hard Berry malt beverage on the ground beneath the two broken windows. Damage was estimated at $400.
L-C State hopes center attracts Indian students
Lewiston Lewis-Clark State College officials hope the school’s new American Indian Center for Educational Excellence will help attract more Indian students to campus.
“It’s a matter of getting the word out and getting some people excited about our institution,” said Bob Sobotta, LCSC’s director of Indian and minority student services.
The center — called Pi’amkinwaas, the Nez Perce word for “gathering place” — was dedicated Tuesday. It includes two computer labs, a student lounge and office space for the Indian Education Professional Development Program. A kids’ room will serve nontraditional students by providing activities and movies for their children, Sobotta said.
The center was financed with an $860,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Education.
Lisa Guzman, director of the professional development program, said the center will serve as a strong recruitment tool for LCSC.
About 150 of the 3,451 LCSC students are Indians, Sobotta said, and half of those students are Nez Perce.
Downwinder advocate Sheri Garmon dies at 53
Emmett, Idaho Downwinder advocate Sheri Garmon has died after a long battle with breast cancer.
Garmon, 53, died Friday. The Emmett native had suffered from various forms of thyroid, breast and bone cancer since 1990, family members said. The cancer spread to her liver before her death.
Like others who lived in southern Idaho during the 1950s and 1960s, Garmon believed exposure to fallout from Cold War nuclear testing in Nevada caused her illnesses. She pushed the federal government to offer compensation for Idaho victims of radiation exposure.
U.S. Sen. Mike Crapo, R-Idaho, said Garmon did more to advance her cause than she will ever know. During her last days in the hospital, he said, “she reiterated her desire for more time to use to help move forward on legislation that will compensate Idahoans who were affected by the nuclear testing so long ago.”
Garmon’s story encouraged Crapo and state Rep. Kathy Skippen, R-Emmett, to work to add Idaho to the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act. Earlier this month Crapo asked the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee to seek expedited action on the proposal, saying Idaho residents should not have to wait to be included in the program.
Services for Garmon were set for Thursday at Potter Funeral Chapel in Emmett.