Rianne Quigley

Staff Writer

Idaho State University tuition rates rose for the year 2019-2020 by 6.1%, making the average bill for a full time student to $3,936 a semester or $7,872 for a full year. This marked increase makes Idaho State University part of a concerning national rise in tuition prices. Recently, President Satterlee sat down with the Bengal to answer questions about the recent increases and Idaho State University’s future.

Question: What is ISU doing to combat rising tuition rates?

Answer: Rising tuition is a problem across the country. So specifically what we are trying to work on is on our own internal cost containment. The university needs some changes in our budget systems from what they’ve been in the past. Both bright sizing and deciding how that money is distributed is going to help. And just so we’re clear, I do not want to raise tuition. Tuition is not a thing that I want to raise. Tuition has been rising across the country at a rate that isn’t sustainable. How we can continue to keep tuition rates down is important to me; I want you to know that. The hard part is if I went to all the students and said we could have no tuition this year but we’d have to cut the following programs or services, what’s the right balance? You want to make sure we are delivering a quality education, that you’re all having experiences that you’re wanting to have, and how do we pay for all of them under the state’s funding system so it’s always a difficult balance. But I want you to know that I’m coming at with the philosophy that we’re trying to keep those rates down.

Question: Should we expect a continued increase in tuition?

Answer: Nothing’s been set yet. So the way the state does it is the state every year in April says sets tuition for the following year. Between now and then, the governor proposes a budget, the legislature passes a budget, and then the state board of education needs to talk about what tuition rates we are going to have, so it’s honestly way too early to even know. Costs go up, cost of living increases, and inflation increases that the university has to cover, and based on what the legislature gives us, what the governor recommends, it’s always a balance. So, presumably, if we have a favorable budget climate from the legislation and the governor, it mitigates our need to do anything with tuition and fees. If there are costs that escalate on the university, then we’ll know. Right now, the real answer is it’s too early to tell, I don’t anticipate that it’s a large tuition and fee increase in any climate right now. But it’s just too early to tell.

Question: Are there specific goals that the administration wants to achieve with the recent increase in funds?

Answer: A couple of things. One of the larger pieces of this last year tuition and fee increase was a facilities fee and so it was to make sure that we have a pool of money that we could use to improve some of our facilities. Some of our facilities are not in good shape. Some of them are in good shape but they’re dated. They don’t feel modern, they don’t feel as if we’re moving forward as a university. And that goes all the way down to the technology that in those facilities, the wireless routers and the classrooms and etcetera and things that we need to remain a modern research university. So one of the biggest pieces of our tuition increase was that fee so we could start modernizing and doing some work on those facilities. That’s what I think you’ll start seeing as that fee is now in place, and that fund source begins, then we can start planning the projects to do some of that facilities related work.

Question: Are there ways for the students to advocate for certain ways for the funds to be used?

Answer: Oh absolutely. We have a process every year that we call for student input on all the fees. Proposed fees are put forwards and students come and give testimony, written or verbal, to talk about that. One of the things we did this last year, was one part of the fee increase was to fund more mental health counselors on campus. That’s a growing need, we all know it’s a need, across the country and on our campus for more mental health counseling. We responded to that need specifically, by saying we’re gonna take this much of our tuition and hire more mental health counselors. That’s an initiative that came out of these discussions. The things that students want to fund we should find a way to do through tuition. One of the things I try to do as president is say to the students is if there is something specific that you want and you want to charge a student fee to take care of those things, let’s get that done. Because if that’s what our students really want to do and what they want their money to go to, we should be doing that. It shouldn’t just be for myself of the administration to say “The university wants to do these things, why don’t you students pay for it?” That’s different. If the students want something done, then that’s what we should be doing with our student fees.

Question: When are the non-updated parts campus going to be updated?

Answer:  Slower than you would think for two reasons. One is the way those funds come in is that they get collected from our students when you pay your tuition each semester, that money gets put in an account with the state. Then the state appropriates that back to us and makes it available for use to use. And once it is available then we start planning those facilities type projects and they have to go through the state’s permanent building fund when we do physical improvements like that and we get the okay. So there’s a timeline between when they’re collected and when they go through the states processes till we can get to use them and put them into projects. So there will be a time lag and then we’ll be able to start using those when they come in. So realistically for the fees that we’re collecting this year, we could start seeing projects next year.

Question: Would anything like the tiger eyes on the rendezvous be updated?

Answer: Yes, especially if I got feedback from the students that that’s something they wanted to see or something like that, then we’d try to get those things on the list.

Question: Where do you want to take Idaho State University this year? Where do you see the university going in your second year?

Answer: In the second year we are looking really closely at strategic planning for the future of the university. So we’re going to hold a strategy planning task force to come together to try to really look at what is our ten year plan and where we want to go. All of the things I’ve been talking about increasing our retention rates, providing the student life environment we all want and what gives our students that great experience while you’re here getting the education to better your life. About making sure that we have the programs that are meeting the needs of the workforce so students graduate with the best chance of getting that first job and the next job throughout their career, About building our culture and our brand and our identity so we become the university that we all know we are. We are a great place. We provide a great education. We have great programs. The more we talk about that more students will want to come here and the more employers will look at us. So that’s the kind of things we want to do moving forward. So doing our strategic plan, working on our retention, working on the student life experience, and working on being the university we want to be is what I see us going this next year.

Watch the video from the interview yourself here.