University of Idaho in-state undergraduate tuition and fees will freeze at their current levels for next year. The other public colleges and universities in Idaho — Idaho State University, Boise State University and Lewis-Clark State College — will also implement freezes.
The presidents of all four institutions have been meeting as a presidents’ council to address affordability in higher education, as originally reported by Idaho Press. UI President Scott Green, ISU President Kevin Satterlee, BSU President Marlene Tromp and LCSC President Cynthia Pemberton have all been hired within the past two years.
“We came together in a unified message to let people know that higher education is a priority in this state and that we have an obligation to the citizens of the state to provide access and availability (to education),” UI Director of Communications Jodi Walker said.
By implementing this plan, UI will be giving up $2 million to $3 million in potential revenue, the Idaho Press article stated. Walker said the decrease in revenue was accounted for when discussions were underway about the budget deficit, so the tuition freeze should not have any further impact on the deficit.
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This will strain the budgets of ISU, BSU and LCSC as well, Idaho State Board of Education President Debbie Critchfield said. ISU will have similar cuts to potential revenue as UI while BSU will have more and LCSC will have less, due to differing sizes in student bodies.
Nonetheless, Idaho is one of the more affordable states for higher education in the US. Only seven states — Wyoming, Florida, Utah, Montana, North Carolina, New Mexico and Nevada — have lower in-state tuition rates than Idaho, according to a College Board 2019-20 report.
According to the Idaho Press article, general fund appropriation for higher education in Idaho grew 11.9% between fiscal year 2009 to 2019 while tuition and fees charged by institutions grew by 155.3%.
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The article quoted Critchfield as saying a long-term plan must be discussed with the understanding that state funding has yet to recover from the recession in the early 2000s while internal costs at universities continue to rise.
Walker said the idea of implementing a tuition freeze has been in the works for a few months. The idea was discussed at a State Board of Education meeting a year ago. This is the first time a freeze has been implemented statewide in 43 years.
“Tuition will not increase for the coming year,” Walker said. “It’s an obligation that we have to the students of the state of Idaho to be able to provide access to higher education. We’re committed to that and this is just one of the ways that we’re doing that.”
Lex Miller can be reached at [email protected]