UI officials eye tuition amendment

MOSCOW (AP) - University of Idaho officials would like to increase the vocabulary they are allowed to use by adding the word "tuition."

But that means getting voters to amend the Idaho Constitution in the Nov. 2 election.

Idaho's 120-year-old state Constitution prevents the Moscow-based school from charging tuition, so the school instead gets revenue through by charging its roughly 12,000 students various "fees."

But because student fees can't be used to pay for instruction under the state's Constitution, the school is forced to carefully separate money it gets from student fees and money from the state.

Keith Ickes, the university's executive director of planning and budget, said the tuition prohibition prevents the flexibility the school needs to pay bills and give students clear information about how much school costs.

"Today, we have to flag various units on campus to determine whether they can or cannot receive matriculation-fee money," Ickes told the Lewiston Tribune. "Because if they're instructional, they cannot."

Sen. Gary Schroeder, R-Moscow, is against the change and said it would make it easier for state and college officials to raise tuition for students as lawmakers lower funding.

In the past two years, state funding for the school has been cut by about $23 million.

"I'm concerned that they will just continue to raise fees to fund everything," said Schroeder. "I really think that we should go back to what the founders really wanted, and give the brightest students in the state, regardless of economic status, a tuition-free education."

Idaho state government provides about 23 percent of the UI's budget, equating to $100 million of a total $450 million budget. The state money goes to help pay professors.