Hailey Nelson
News Editor
Idaho State University is known for its educational success in many ways. Many revere its extensive nursing program, triumphant theater department, and many other routes that students may take to become the successful individuals they would like to be.
However, a change in the 2019-20 and 2020-21 fiscal years may limit resources for ISU’s many degree paths and programs. The request to shrink all state agencies’ budgets by 1% each year was made earlier this fall by Gov. Brad Little.
Little’s chief of staff, Zach Hauge, was quoted in Idaho Ed News talking about the reasons for this cut.
“Gov. Little is calling for a ‘spending reset’ as part of his FY 2020-2021 executive budget recommendation,” said Hauge in Idaho Ed News.
This essentially means that all budgets are expected to reset based on historical spending, according to Jennifer Steele, Assistant Vice President for Budget, Planning and Analysis at ISU.
In a letter to faculty and staff regarding the issue, President Kevin Satterlee said that the cut was “not in response to state budget shortfalls.”
“Our leadership team will be working together in a spirit of collaboration to meet this State of Idaho request,” wrote Satterlee. “I know there are many questions about how this will impact our University. We do not have all of the answers right now, but campus will be involved and updated as soon as a plan is identified.”
Departments have not yet been given their finalized budgets for the affected periods, and no foreseeable department is going to be more affected than another.
Rumors have spread about the theater department’s budget being significantly chopped. According to director Tara Young, however, this is not being discussed or finalized at the moment. In a brief phone call, she seemed surprised to hear about the idea.
“I haven’t heard anything about this,” said Young.
July 1 will begin the next fiscal year. While the future of each department’s spending allowance is unclear, ISU’s faculty is preparing for the cuts.
1% of ISU’s overall budget would be equal to about 850,000 dollars, according to Stuart Summers, Associate Vice President of the university. This would, in the best-case scenario, be taken equally out of multiple budgets. Assuming ISU creates the staff and faculty’s most-desired outcome, no major adjustments will need to be made to any individual department budget.
President Satterlee wrote to staff and faculty about the game plan preceding ISU’s future.
“We have started the process to create a visionary 10-year strategic plan for our university to be adopted by 2021,” he said.
An open forum is set to take place Dec. 10 to present the plans Satterlee and his colleagues have for ISU.
