Community college proposal poses problems for ISU

IDAHO FALLS – The new president of Idaho State University offered a chilly reception to a legislative proposal for new community colleges across the state.

In his first-ever address to state lawmakers, Arthur Vailas said Tuesday that expanding Idaho’s community college system could cost ISU up to $5 million a year.

The committee met at Eastern Idaho Technical College – the latest stop on a summer tour of educational hubs throughout the state. ISU has a satellite campus in Idaho Falls, and its main campus in nearby Pocatello.

If the state builds new two-year colleges or bolsters existing schools like the technical college into community colleges, Vailas said, ISU would suffer because students enrolled in entry level and professional technical courses at ISU would look elsewhere.

Vailas pressed the committee to allocate more money to ISU to offset potential declines in enrollment if the new community college system is adopted.

“All of this is ‘what-if’ scenarios. We don’t know for sure what enrollment impact would be,” Vailas said. “Let’s take the worst-case scenario: If we did lose $5 million, we would hope the Legislature would assist ISU financially to restructure and reorganize so we could build back enrollment.”

Currently, there are only two free-standing community colleges in the state. Advocates have stressed that Idaho needs more colleges so students can keep pace in a competitive economy.

Two community college measures failed to pass during the legislative session earlier this year. One bill would have built more schools, while former Gov. Dirk Kempthorne had sought $5 million to pay for more community college classes.

“One of the biggest factors to me isn’t the preservation of an institution,” Sen. Bart Davis, R-Idaho Falls, said of Vailas’ comments. “It is the meaningful delivery of quality education to the people, particularly in my community where we deliver so much education in support of our national laboratory.”

The U.S. Department of Energy’s Idaho National Laboratory is outside of Idaho Falls.

Vailas said ISU options are unique and would not easily be replaced by professional technical courses at community colleges.

If ISU loses lower division and technical students to community colleges, the state’s work force would lag behind, he said.

Before Vailas’ presentation, Eastern Idaho Technical College President William A. Robertson made a case for smaller institutions. He said EITC enrolls 1,447 students in accredited programs, many of them single mothers and other students unlikely to attend a four-year college.

“They’re people who had dead-end jobs trying to support families,” Robertson said. “It’s a marvel to me they get through.”