NIC turned down a potential $300,000 in the governor’s proposed budget in order to help the College of Western Idaho.
The reason for the move, which included the College of Southern Idaho forfeiting its equal share of the $1 million budget proposal, was to boost the substantially smaller and younger CWI, and enable it to be funded along with the other two-year schools in the state.
“It wasn’t as if we had the check and gave it back, it was a long way from reality,” said Mark Browning, NIC’s vice president of communications. “We said, ‘We’ll forgo our part of it to CWI, and then bring them into the code so everything is split between the three of us and put that back into the system so it elevates everybody.’ We’re getting [the money], but just as part of the system, rather than part of an individual cut of something that we weren’t even guaranteed of getting.”
Browning stressed the fact that the governor’s proposed budget was just that, a proposed budget, and has not yet been agreed with by Idaho’s legislators.
“Strategically for us, it’s a really good move,” Browning said.
According to Browning and Vice President of Resource Management Ron Dorn, NIC will also benefit monetarily from the good deed.
“We gave up that money to get what they call an Enrollment Equity Adjustment,” Dorn said. “In other words, for the increased enrollment we’ll receive extra dollars. Instead of $300,000, we’ll receive near $750,000. In a way, we traded.”
With NIC’s state funding being cut from 45 percent of its budget to 31 percent, the Enrollment Equity Adjustment, also called a Work-load Adjustment, will be extra funding NIC hasn’t received in years, according to Dorn.
In addition to the boost in money from the state, NIC was not only mentioned, but also praised in Governor Otter’s State of the State address, for an “extraordinary example of collaboration.”
“North Idaho College was mentioned more than any other institution, by name, in the state and that’s a very good thing for us, because we’re doing such good things here,” Browning said. “I think the biggest positive is that we are seen as a leader in the group of the two-year community colleges in collaboration.”
