Andrew Crighton
Life Editor
Two of the most recent buildings on the Idaho State University campus are the L.E. and Thelma E. Stephens Performing Arts Center and the Rendezvous Complex, which cost $34 million and $43.5 million respectively.
While both buildings cost large sums of money, they were funded in very different ways, most noticeably that Rendezvous is being paid for in part by student fees, whereas the Performing Arts Center caused no change to ISU students’ fees or tuition.
“It’s important to understand that the performing arts center is different from any other building on campus in that, it’s not a university building, it’s an Idaho State University Foundation Building,” said Kent Tingey, vice president for university advancement.
The ISU Foundation’s mission is to raise funds from private donors to the benefit of the university, students, faculty and staff.
Because it was funded through the foundation, the money used is separate from the university, which is why no costs were passed on to students.
In 2001, the ISU Foundation began the Creating Legacies Campaign, with the goal of raising $101 million.
The campaign coincided with the centennial celebration of ISU. $35 million of the goal was to create a new performing arts center and the rest would go toward two other goals. One of those goals was to fund scholarships for students and the other for an academic advancement fund, i.e. computers, an endowed professorship or anything that would help students at the university.
The foundation partially funded the complex, with other sources coming from private donors such as the main contributors, the Stephens, whose donation was approximately $10 million, to hundreds of others who donated varying amounts.
In order to begin the construction the foundation bonded a loan of $22 million, and according to Tingey, “Approximately $5 million is left. It should be paid off in the next 10 years.”
Currently, the Stephens Performing Arts Center is the only building on campus that has been funded by the ISU Foundation.
The Rendezvous Complex was built by the university for several reasons; first being that the university required more facilities to accommodate students.
Second, at that time the university received funding from the State Permanent Building Fund, which provides money for state buildings.
This came in the form of a surplus eliminator, a way for the legislature to spend excess money in the budget, which according to Tingey does not happen very often.
“The state gave a one-time fund to build the structure, but there’s a lot that still has to go in it,” said Arthur Vailas, university president.
Those other things include electrical work, custodial work and all of the items that would go inside of the building.
This part of the cost is what the university is raising through increases in student fees and tuition, as well as from a loan bonded against the revenue from University Housing.
Tingey explains that the type of funding received for Rendezvous from the state is starting to become less and less common.
“These days the state doesn’t pay for many buildings at all. In 1989, about 60 percent of our budget was from the state, and that’s at around 21 or 22 percent now,” Tingey said. “Moving forward, I think a lot of buildings will be built by private funds, individuals who take an interest in the students.”
In the past, universities in general, including ISU, have gone into debt for projects by taking out bonded loans. ISU is trying to reduce the amount of debt that it enters in the future, while also paying off debt that it currently has.
Over the past few years, the university has reduced its debt by approximately $5 million per year.
“We’re trying to figure out other strategies, to see if we can partner with venture people to take the risk to build more facilities, if they would take the financial risk and we would in turn maybe give them property or something,” said Vailas.
