News BY BILL ROBERTS - broberts@idahostatesman.com MOSCOW - Just a few years ago, Karen Guilfoyle was ready to quit her job as an education professor at the University of Idaho. Class sizes were growing. Faculty was diminishing, and precious research time was vanishing. Now, however, she's not planning to go anywhere. "My husband is afraid I am never going to quit," she said. After years of financial and image problems, the University of Idaho is showing signs of renewal. Key indicators of a university's health - enrollment and research grants - appear to be leveling off or increasing after several years' decline. President George Bush last month presented U of I the government's highest arts honor for the school's signature Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival. Faculty numbers, which were cut in the early part of the decade as the university reined in spending, are beginning to rebound. The University of Idaho Foundation has restructured itself after problems that grew out of the university's attempt to expands its Boise campus. U of I, however, still wrestles with problems. Enrollment, which fell 10 percent in five years, has yet to show a healthy rebound, and that makes it harder to recruit both students and faculty and makes it tougher for the school to get more money from the Legislature. But throughout the university, once dark feelings of pessimism are being replaced by hope. U of I is in planning stages for an estimated $300 million capital campaign - nearly twice the size of a campaign recently announced by Boise State University - aimed in part at improving student financial assistance. University supporters say such a campaign would have been unthinkable just three years ago. Then, the university was: Mired in $20 million worth of red ink, much of it money U of I owed itself for overspending in programs such as the Lionel Hampton festival. The debt is down to $14 million, and there is a credible plan to pay it off. Caught by state higher education budget cutbacks that contributed to staff reductions as Idaho's economy shuddered in the aftermath of 9/11. Bruised by the failure of University Place, a proposal for a three-building satellite campus in Boise that fell apart in 2003 over questions of financial management. The project led to the resignation of a popular college president and to state and federal criminal investigations and multiple civil lawsuits. Jerry Wallace, U of I's former vice president for finance, was sentenced to three years of probation for misuse of state funds. HARD TO WATCH Watching the roller coaster ride hasn't been easy for U of I alumni like Peter Mundt, whose family has a connection with the school both as students and as faculty. "It was emotionally painful," said Mundt, a media producer for Healthwise, "To watch that name continue to be dragged around and kicked around was very difficult." Like many supporters, Mundt credits U of I President Tim White and the leadership team he brought to the school for salvaging the university's reputation and future. "The administration ... has been able to take what was a very difficult situation and make very difficult decisions to steer things in a better direction," he said. The school's leaders trimmed budgets and cut staff in 2005 by about 70 people. But officials also scraped together money for a 4 percent faculty raise in 2005 and found dollars for seed projects that would bring together interdisciplinary programs within the university. MENDING A SPLINTERED UNIVERSITY White, who took over as president in fall 2004, inherited a university that had lost its way, he said. "I never lost confidence we could make a huge difference here," White said. "But I was sobered by the magnitude of the job in front of us." White said he took over a university that had splintered into camps where colleges and departments were protecting their own turf and hoarding resources. In a move to bring them together, White set aside $5.5 million for projects that would enhance students' education by bringing several colleges to bear on a course of study. Faculty presented 43 proposals. Five were selected. Waters of the West, a program that involves nearly all of U of I's colleges and focuses on one of the state's most vital resources, began this fall as one of the five selected programs. It now has 17 students and is expected eventually to involve up to 60 faculty from eight of the university's colleges. Joseph Machala is one of the first students in the Waters of the West program. The 24-year-old Twin Falls student graduated from U of I in 2006 after studying biological and agricultural engineering. But he came back to join Waters of the West after a stint with a consulting firm in Salt Lake City. "I want to make myself more marketable," he said. On a day in late October, Machala stood on the steep bank of narrow Paradise Creek, next to the Moscow city sewer system. He measured the bank's width, which will help tell U of I researchers how much water moves down the creek at peak flows. The information will help Machala and professor Jan Boll understand more about the region's aquifer, which is slowly being drained. Along with getting field experience, Machala will study water law and other aspects to give him a broad view when he completes the program. Boll, who directs Waters of the West, hopes the program will expand from studying the aquifer to working with the Nez Perce and a nearby irrigation district on water quality issues. "If we can be there in five years, I'd be real happy," Boll said. ENROLLMENT, SPACE CHALLENGES LIE AHEAD U of I's uptick doesn't mean the school's problems are solved. While university enrollment has stopped hemorrhaging, U of I isn't reporting the gains of other schools. Idaho State University grew by 4.2 percent this year after a sharp 9 percent drop in 2006. BSU has shown steady increases for most of the last eight years. Sagging enrollment makes it difficult to pitch the need for more money to the Legislature, some lawmakers say. "The big challenge for them now is they are not growing enrollment," said State Sen. Jim Hammond, R-Post Falls. Nonetheless, school officials are optimistic. Visits to campus by prospective students are up from 2,088 in 2003-04 to 2,626 in 2006-07. Faculty, who were caught off guard by the university's financial problem early in the decade, watched their ranks thin as professors were encouraged to take early retirement. But now, faculty numbers are starting to grow again, rebounding to nearly the 2001 level. Faculty hit a high of 915 in 2001 but declined to 839 by 2005. By 2007, the number rebounded to 897. As deans and administrators began to feel the university's finances solidify, they became more comfortable with hiring, said Doug Baker, U of I provost and executive vice president. "When you are not sure about the state of fiscal affairs, you are going to be more conservative and not overextend yourself," he said. Class sizes, which some faculty say mushroomed during the lean times, are beginning to ease. And many faculty members say they are pleased White included them in helping shape the vision for the university through a task force he started even before arriving on campus in 2004. "It gave us a feeling we had a say," said Guilfoyle, the faculty council's vice chair. But challenges remain. U of I's chemistry department, for instance, is nearly out of lab space for freshman classes, said Tom Bitterwolf, a chemistry professor. If the schools of engineering or natural resources, which require chemistry, increase their student load, it could create a bottleneck in providing the instruction. "It's going to put us up against the wall," Bitterwolf said. Baker knows the chemistry department is short of room. The school is looking at a number of ways to build more labs or put chemistry labs in a proposed new science building. U of I could also extend the class day and run labs in the evening, he said. Those challenges seem more manageable to faculty than those during the dark days when they were hit unaware with cuts in budgets and class offerings. "It's not the doe in the headlights of three years ago," Bitterwolf said. |