University of Idaho will launch a new fundraising program to raise $500 million that will benefit higher education and university operation costs.
The “Brave. Bold.” campaign began raising funds in 2015, launching a public reveal next month. The public reveal will draw more attention to the main goal of investing money into scholarships, fellowships, experiential learning and more benefits for students in Idaho through donations from donors and alumni.
The main reasons for the fundraising campaign are due to the cost of higher education. The state used to cover 90% of a family’s cost of higher education. Currently the state covers only 50%, according to the Idaho Center for Fiscal Policy. With inflation, the cost of tuition for UI increased from $1,441 to $8,304.
“I don’t want to give the impression that we are raising money for state shortfall,” President Scott Green said during Faculty Senate. “We continue to see the state continue to defund education for 20 years and I don’t see that stopping.”
Green is optimistic about the fundraising program lowering the budget for both students and the university operating budget.
The fundraising program has raised over $276 million since the silent launch of 2015. Even during the pandemic, UI was able to raise $45 million in that time.
“Last year was our most successful fundraising in the university’s history,” Mary Kay McFadden, vice president for UI’s University Advancement, said.
The October reveal is just the first part. Phase two will focus on the needs of individual colleges through the deans.
“We have made real good progress on that already,” Green said. “It’s going to be the largest campaign in Idaho history, for anyone.”
A hope of the campaign is to showcase what UI has to offer in the workforce and state. The public launch will be held at the new ICCU Arena Oct. 8 to help provide momentum.
Faculty Senate is also forming two subcommittees on teaching evaluations. One will review teaching practices and the second is a task force on parental leave policies. This subcommittee will work on proposals to make the parental leave policy to be more competitive than other universities and employers within Idaho. The subcommittee will have both faculty and staff representation.
University COVID-19 testing and the mask policies were discussed again in the senate, with the Sept. 20 protocol update approaching. Vaccination rates among students signed up for incentives has crossed over 3,000. An 800 increase from the last report given by UI Provost and Executive Vice President Torrey Lawrence.
“We still have a lot of COVID-19 around us,” Lawrence said. “I think it would take a lot for things to change from here to Monday.”
Faculty Senator Jean-Marc Gauthier spoke on the issue of students having to quarantine and missing school due to the window of time lost when waiting for test results.
“They isolate themselves for very good reasons and we thank them for doing that,” Gauthier said. “At the same time, we penalize them because they can’t follow in class.”
Lawrence stated that teachers should accommodate students when they miss class for whatever reasons.
“We frankly don’t need to know what it was. What we want to do is to encourage (students) to stay home if they aren’t feeling well,” Lawrence said. “Then do whatever we can to accommodate them to still make progress in class.”
Faculty Senator Eric Mittelstaedt spoke of struggles a student of his faced going to Gritman Medical Center to get tested. “You can get an at-home test that will take 8-10 days to get to you,” Mittelstaedt said. “Otherwise, you wait till your roommate’s quarantine is over and go back to class.”
Lawrence noted that students should contact the Vandal Health Clinic or visit their physician.
Daniel V. Ramirez can be reached at [email protected] or Twitter @DVR_Tweets