Vailas Pitches ISU Budget, Hopeful For Increase
Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas said Monday that the university may finally start to recoup some of the money it lost in budget cuts during the recession.
Vailas presented to the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee in Boise Monday, where he said the committee was positive about what ISU has been doing, and the money the school is looking for.
JFAC congratulated ISU on the school’s alternative energy initiatives and how cost-effective it’s been during the recession, Vailas said.
“They were impressed with how we weathered the storm,” he said.
And there may be some relief on the horizon. Vailas said he expects an increase in the budget, though exactly how it will break out is still unknown.
“We can do a lot with an investment with the university, and as you invest more, we can do more,” Vailas said.
The university is asking for $14 million in line item requests for 2013. Enrollment has been going up in the last several years, but funding hasn’t, leaving professors without pay raises and many services without updates. The university would like to make up for that, Vailas said.
Part of those line item requests included $1 million for the Center for Advanced Energy Studies.
ISU was able to reduce its debt by $4.3 million from 2010 to 2011, even though it still has more than $70 million in debt. Vailas is hopeful he can reduce that debt even more now, and put the money he saves to work on retaining valuable faculty members.
“We’d like to do more, because to retain good people and to recruit good people is important to your success,” Vailas said.
Still, Layne Hansen, a masters student in political science, said he thinks it’s a good thing that the university is finding ways to become more self-sufficient, and he wants to see it continue.
“People are struggling, you know, to foot the bill for government programs, and then they come to the university and we have all these beautiful facilities and everything — it’s kind of a dichotomy between what people are going through throughout the state and what students have access to,” Hansen said.
Despite the beautiful facilities, ISU still has a problem with deferring maintenance to buildings and services. Vailas said he wants to start chipping away at the $446 million of work the school needs to do.
Sen. Diane Bilyeu (D-Pocatello), a member of JFAC, said Vailas did “an excellent job” describing the impact of ISU to the area. The committee’s biggest concern, however, is the recent increases in tuition. That was a major part of the committee’s questioning toward Vailas, she said. Bilyeu said she hopes ISU can “find a way to not increase tuition like they have in the last several years.”
