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Boise State University Alters Community College Plan

Posted on: Thursday, 23 February 2006, 12:00 CST

By Bill Roberts, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

Feb. 23--Boise State University will try to serve more students with less money at the proposed community college it could open in the Treasure Valley this fall.

BSU put a new proposal before the J.A. and Kathryn Albertson Foundation this week for $11 million to open a school that would increase the number of students enrolled from early projections of 600 to 2,000 this fall and to 3,000 by 2008.

The proposal also cuts the credit-hour charge from an earlier projection of $120 an hour to $100 an hour.

BSU refined the proposal it submitted to the foundation earlier this year that sought $24 million and included constructing a second building on the BSU West campus at a cost of $17 million.

Changes in BSU's community college plan came after a meeting last week between BSU President Bob Kustra, the foundation and Gov. Dirk Kempthorne, who is asking the Legislature for $5 million in seed money for new community colleges.

BSU's new proposal is a "more focused effort on our part to demonstrate to the Albertson Foundation that we would use their funding solely for hiring faculty and for student support services," Kustra said Wednesday. The difference in BSU's proposals, he said, was recognizing the "foundation's interest in serving large numbers of students and suggesting to us we should do so."

The foundation could not be reached for comment Wednesday.

The new community college, which BSU refers to as the "College of Western Idaho" in its proposal to the foundation, would include 10 new full-time faculty and 32 adjunct instructors. But the school would not offer new vocational courses; it would offer only academic classes such as history, philosophy, English, math, art and communications. Those are courses that students could transfer to a four-year school.

BSU would not offer expanded professional-technical classes beyond what is now offered at the school's Larry Selland College of Applied Technology.

Kustra's proposal is the latest turn in a frenzied couple of months of community college maneuvering in Idaho that have seen:

--Three colleges, including Treasure Valley Community College in Ontario and the College of Southern Idaho in Twin Falls, consider starting classes in the Treasure Valley.

--Kempthorne ask state legislators for $5 million to start community colleges.

--Lawmakers introduce a separate bill to establish two-year schools.

--The Albertson Foundation consider proposals for millions of dollars from BSU and TVCC to launch a new two-year school in the Treasure Valley.

Despite all the talk and meetings over the last couple of months, BSU's community college is still only a dream. Kustra has promised to open the school this fall if he gets the money he needs.

If the school opens in the fall, classes likely would be taught in the single BSU West campus building in Nampa and in Boise and Meridian district public schools, Kustra said.

But BSU isn't the only college with its eye on southwest Idaho.

TVCC is discussing an $18 million plan with the foundation to build three campuses in Caldwell, downtown Boise, and the Meridian area, said Eric Ellis, a spokesman for that school. TVCC would start offering classes next fall, and grow to add 8,000 students in the next five years. It now serves about 600 students in Caldwell.

But Ellis said the timeline is growing short for TVCC to be able to guarantee a fall opening. If school officials don't know until late spring or summer whether they will can offer classes in Boise and Meridian, "we would have to adjust our time," Ellis said.

College of Southern Idaho hopes to move ahead with its own plan to offer community college classes in the Boise area, perhaps working with TVCC.

"There's a huge need down there, and I think everybody realizes that," said Mike Mason, financial vice president at CSI.

Idaho now has two community colleges -- North Idaho College in Coeur d'Alene and CSI in Twin Falls. Expanding community colleges has become a focus for Idaho education and business leaders as they try to figure out how to improve the work force and make college available to more people.

Rep. Ann Rydalch, R-Idaho Falls, has proposed a plan for a statewide community college system using 4.25 percent of overall state sales tax revenues -- an estimated $44 million in the coming fiscal year.

The three colleges eyeing the Boise-area market want to start their programs as soon as possible.

BSU President Bob Kustra said that while there's a need for community college classes, there isn't room for more than one provider.

"It's really hard to travel anywhere in the United States and find a community college operating on top of another community college in any one region," Kustra said. TVCC's proposal would duplicate some of the services BSU is planning to offer, he said. It's also not clear how many people would take classes if they were available.

"No one really knows for sure how many underserved students we have here in southwest Idaho just waiting to sign up for their first community college course next September," Kustra said. "It certainly doesn't make any sense for more than one community college to experiment with how to kick this thing off appropriately."

Associated Press reporter Anne Wallace Allen contributed to this story.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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Source: The Idaho Statesman, Boise

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