BOISE — Hundreds turned out at Boise State University on Tuesday night for a forum on diversity and inclusion programs and the university’s future, and though strong views were expressed on both sides, many came away reassured.

“I thought it was an important discussion to have,” said Thomas Campbell, a senior and president of BSU’s Political Science Association. “You can get swept up in the talk of, ‘Are they going to defund us?’ It was nice to have some reassurance.”

Campbell said it was especially good to get that reassurance from Rep. Barbara Ehardt, R-Idaho Falls, who authored a letter signed by 27 other GOP state representatives in July objecting to BSU’s diversity and inclusion initiatives as “antithetical to the Idaho way.”

On Tuesday night, both Ehardt and Rep. Bryan Zollinger, R-Idaho Falls, who signed Ehardt’s letter, were asked if they support a petition circulating among some legislators to defund BSU over the issue. Both said they hadn’t seen the petition.

“That has never been the goal,” said Ehardt, a former college basketball coach. “My No. 1 goal is to make sure that free speech is not limited, and from there I certainly do want to have conversations.”

Zollinger said, “I also haven’t seen the petition. I haven’t spoken with anybody that’s in favor of cutting funding for Boise State. I do think we should be careful with our taxpayer dollars.”

He said lawmakers will look at the university’s budget requests.

“I personally wouldn’t fund additional staffing for some of the things that were included in Dr. Schimpf’s letter, but as far as defunding Boise State, absolutely not,” Zollinger said.

A June newsletter sent to the campus community by then-interim BSU President Martin Schimpf highlighting diversity and inclusion programs on campus — forwarded to state lawmakers by the Idaho Freedom Foundation — sparked the controversy. Among other objections, the lawmakers’ letter honed in on an item about “multicultural student events, such as Pow Wow, Rainbow Graduation, Black Graduation, Project Dream for Tomorrow, and others.”

The lawmakers’ letter argued that such programs, and others aimed at diversity and inclusion, were diverting money from educating students and driving up tuition. However, those programs actually were funded by corporate sponsorship fees paid by Coca Cola.

The controversy included charges that BSU was holding “segregated” graduation ceremonies, which it does not. Despite the names of those student group celebrations, BSU holds a single, campus-wide Commencement. This year’s, on May 11, was so large it had to be split into morning and afternoon segments by college.

“This issue goes to how something like the letter that was sent can explode into … misinformation,” said Rep. Mat Erpelding, D-Boise, who spoke on a panel along with Ehardt, Zollinger, and Sen. Cherie Buckner-Webb, D-Boise.

Ehardt repeatedly referred to programs designed to assist a specific minority group as “segregation,” sparking sharp responses from both Buckner-Webb, the only African-American member of the Idaho Legislature, and Erpelding.

“Segregation is you can’t have this drinking fountain, you can’t come to this college,” Erpelding said. “So let’s use our language appropriately and recognize that nothing that is happening on this campus, while we can have debates, is anywhere near segregation.”

“That was my favorite part,” said Keri Nemeroff, a senior who attended the session on her own time, without a class assignment requiring it.

“No extra credit — I just wanted to come,” she said. “After reading the letter, I was pissed.”

Hailey Barr, also a senior, said, “After reading the letter, I felt like I needed more explanation from the representatives. It was nice to hear kind of some reassuring stances. I still don’t understand the views that were expressed in the letter, but I feel better about their views overall.”

Buckner-Webb told the crowd of close to 400, “We are all diverse. Every person in this room is diverse. So what we want to look at is how we can be inclusive of one another.”

Ehardt said, “Our colleges and universities are getting away from their intended purposes of education and instead are focusing on social justice agendas, seemingly in every class. … This has to change if we are to keep the heart of our First Amendment rights, then we have to allow all students, all faculty, all … to participate … in the discussions.”

Zollinger said of diversity and inclusion programs, “It’s money that could be going to education. … Money that could be keeping tuition dollars lower.”

Erpelding said Latino student enrollment is skyrocketing.

“That means our campus is changing,” he said. “That means different resources need to be made available.” The aim is to help all students succeed, he said.

Ehardt said, “The letter actually talks about the importance of including all voices. When you look at the direction we’re going, we are not including all voices. We have people on campus that are scared to speak up. That’s not the Idaho way.”

Katie Beach, a sophomore, attended the forum as part of a communications class assignment, and said she was glad she did.

“I’m still not really sure what side I’m on, because I kind of felt like I agreed with some of the stuff from the Republicans, and some of the stuff from the Democrats,” she said. “I’m not really into politics.”

She said she won’t decide what political party she aligns with until she votes next year.

The forum was co-sponsored by BSU’s College Republicans and Young Democrats.