Way back a half-century ago, when I arrived at the University of Idaho, the cost of a higher education was not a big concern.
Being an out-of-state student, I did pay tuition, as in-staters then did not. That still wasn’t any serious obstacle; tuition and fees amounted to a few hundred dollars. There were residence and meal fees too, of course, but they were not especially onerous either.
I had saved some money from work during the prior year and to that added some help from my parents, some part-time work at Moscow, and a small loan, which post-college I easily paid off in a couple of years. No problem, really, and most students (at least at public colleges and universities, and many private institutions too) of the time probably could say something similar.
That was then. This year, the state Board of Education “approved an increase of $425 for resident undergraduate students at Boise State, University of Idaho, and Idaho State University and $350 for students attending Lewis-Clark State College. The decision reflects a deliberate effort to balance student affordability with the long-term sustainability and competitiveness of Idaho’s higher education system.”
That increase for just this year was close to the semester tuition I paid back in the day.
For the academic year just starting, the University of Idaho website reports that the cost (tuition and the rest) for attendance is estimated overall at $50,267 for non-residents and $30,791 for in-state students. And, of course, the UI still is a lot less expensive than many institutions.
That’s a whole different world than I experienced back when: Far more oppressive and life-bending. What was not a difficult proposition for many students a few decades ago has become one.
None of this is really news, of course, but there’s cause for mentioning it now: An upcoming change of the guard at UI. Scott Green, who has served a respectable seven years as president, said he will retire next summer, and the heavy machinery for hiring a replacement is kicking into gear.
A suggestion: Throughout the process, ask applicants for the position what they will do to help make the UI a more affordable education option, filling the needs of the many who need the help rather than just a few who can afford it, the way it once was.
It’s not that a university president can simply make such things happen on campus with the issuance of a proclamation. But a university president can be an influencer, can advance an agenda, can put ideas on the table, can reach the public.
No institutional strategist would advise a new UI president to launch and lead a visible campaign for decently funding higher education in Idaho (which isn’t now), one of the big causes of high costs for students. But that’s exactly what a university president should do.
Nor would the successful applicant get much advice to find ways to save money without weakening value to students, meaning pressuring both external accrediting organizations and internal administrative and support functions that have grown so much in the last couple of generations. But they should.
Add to that taking a more critical look at spending that doesn’t enhance education at the institution. (Yes, UI also conducts valuable research work, but much of that is underwritten by grants and other income.) In his recent book Crisis of the Common Good, Senator Chris Murphy - an advocate for the benefits of higher education - warned about “not more accessible education but visible monuments to institutional prestige - cathedrals built to a credential that grows more expensive and more exclusive with every groundbreaking.”
He also wrote about finding more flexible ways of awarding degrees and certifications, in some cases scaling back the standard four-year schedule for an undergraduate degree in cases where a more efficient selection of courses and instruction could be done in less time.
This should be a solvable problem, one that some states have begun to address more seriously.
Idaho did it once. Idaho can do it again. Here's an opportunity to make the mission of the next president moving toward getting us there.