IRIC and employee salaries both critical to UI’s future
Question: How can the University of Idaho claim it needs $1.6 million from the state for employee raises when they are spending $51 million on the construction of new Integrated Research and Innovation Center (IRIC)?
Max Cowan
This question gets to the heart of almost every budget issue and has to do with the difference between one-time funds and continuing funds.
Put into the words of personal finance, it is the difference between savings and income. If you’re deciding what you can afford in rent, you have to look at income. You need to make enough each month to pay your bills. If you want to buy something, a new laptop for example, you have to look at how much you have in savings.
University budgets function in much the same way. Building costs are one-time expenses, like buying a new laptop, while salaries are part of the university’s bills every year. While the university can use one-time funds, like personal savings, to support the building of the IRIC, it would not be financially viable to use these funds to cover salaries as they will eventually run out.
This is a simple analogy and the reality is unsurprisingly a little more complicated. It bears noting that UI is not actually funding the IRIC building from savings. Instead, they use bonds to pay for the building, which are still one-time funds, but allow for the cost to be spread over many years instead of paying all at once. This makes them look similar to ongoing budget obligations, but eventually they will be paid off and are therefore still one-time funds — despite appearances.
However, there is more to this question than just the budgets. Rather than wondering if the IRIC funds could have been used to pay for salaries, this question is asking about the reason for spending the money. Salary increases are a real concern for recruiting and retaining faculty. Last year we saw over 14 percent of our faculty leave as salaries fell in comparison to our peer institutions. Raising employee compensation hopes to address this issue in part.
The IRIC ultimately serves the same purpose. In order to attract high-caliber research, we need the facilities to support that work, for both graduate students and faculty. Adding laboratory space that is up to date aids in recruiting and retaining research.
Both facilities and salaries play a role in addressing the need to keep quality faculty. They’re part of a larger picture and a plan to move UI forward.
Max Cowan can be reached at [email protected]