EDITOR NOTE–Kids! Play nice. You DON’T me to stop the car and come back there. You are correct about Cyclops. I have had to put him in time out in the past for being a potty mouth. Can’t justify that his comments were heated and while obviously aimed at you he was wrong to add stupid. I cannot do any more refereeing on this, so COMMENTS CLOSED!

CWI trustees said it was not the appropriate time to raise tuition because of the recession.

College of Western Idaho fees will stay at $119 per credit hour and $1,428 per semester for 12 to 18 credits.

Boise State University has proposed a 5 percent increase in tuition for next year for a total of $2,432.per semester. The State Board of Education must still approve Boise State’s request. The board does not oversee community college tuitions.
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And, for the record, CWI DOES NOT have a lobbyest. Bill is right that there is no lobbying. BECAUSE THEY DO NOT HAVE A LOBBYEST.

EDITOR NOTE–A personal attack was deleted from the rest of this comment. We try to edit comments of a personal nature. Lively debate is fine, but the GUARDIAN does not want comments like those found on lesser blogs.

But, then again, that is what lobbyists say they are doing.

Don’t mislead people that CWI is out there with greedy little hands asking for anything up and beyond what is needed and can be afforded during these tough times. My sister is a leading legislator in this state and she says you are full of it and are misleading people about CWI lobbying. She also said she has not had one lobbyist approach her and would know if this was happening because of her position on a committee. I think you don’t understand what is being ask in terms of funding and how funding works for community colleges in this state. It’s not fair to make CWI sound sinister. I think you are just so anti-tax, that your view is NARROW and one-sighted!

Great post by TVCC employee. I think TVCC’s success and CWI’s great start shows that there is a great need for affordable higher education in the Treasure Valley. I’m not a big fan of Idaho money leaving the state right now, but can probably live with it because it gives people another option. Competition is never a bad thing. I do think that Caldwell would only serve itself best if it equally embraced both schools versus appearing to favor TVCC over CWI. If both thrive, Caldwell will benefit.

First, the original post is generally unkind to a man, Dennis Griffin, who’s given significant effort to educating students throughout the Treasure Valley for many years. When he was appointed to the presidency of CWI at the time of its creation, he was clear then that he was only interested in the position for two years, and he’s been consistent since then. To pillory him for keeping his word is to criticize someone for acting honorably. My understanding is that the blog author, and many who comment, want good government and good stewards of public funds. You can disagree with how CWI was established, or whether it was needed, but lobbing brickbats at a responsible administrator who’s successfully managed a startup of this magnitude makes you look mean, and uninformed.

Second, there continues to be confusion about the role of TVCC in the Treasure Valley educational scene. TVCC receives no funding from the Idaho state government, or from any taxing district in Idaho. As Paul correctly states, TVCC has been operating a branch center in Caldwell for almost six years. This operation is funded completely by the student tuition and fees – because it’s located in Idaho, it also cannot be funded by Oregon taxpayer funds. This makes for an operation with a business model that looks actually more like a private college (U of Phoenix or College of Idaho) than a traditionally funded, taxpayer-supported community college.

Because Idaho colleges like BSU and CWI operate on a semester system (where classes are typically 15 weeks long), and Oregon colleges operate on a quarter system (where classes are 11 weeks long), it always makes comparing the cost per credit hard. At its simplest, a quarter credit equates to two-thirds of a semester credit.

As such, you need to multiply TVCC’s credit cost by 1.3 to get a true equivalent cost. As a result, if you compare cost per credit at TVCC’s Caldwell Center ($97) to the number that Bronco Bob cites for BSU ($238), then the true comparison is $122.32 to $238. Bronco Bob is in error about additional fees – TVCC incorporates all fees into a single Universal fee that is charged per-credit. Of the $97 figure I cite above, $12 of that is our universal fee.

An astute reader will note, then, that TVCC’s per-credit cost when converted to its semester equivalent ($122.30) is higher than CWI’s $119. This is, in essence, the difference that taxpayer funding makes. TVCC in Caldwell runs with a very lean, very efficient staffing model because we have to – we’re tuition-funded. James Bond asks why TVCC would be interested in doing so, and the answer is because education is our mission, and because six years ago, partners in the Caldwell area approached us about filling a need. It made financial sense then, and it continues to do so now. TVCC has been consistent in our statement that CWI is a needed addition to the Treasure Valley. And, frankly, having gone through our own startup phase during the last six years, we can attest that what CWI has accomplished is no small feat – they’re building the plane at the same time as they’re flying it, and so is TVCC.

To come back to the original point. You can certainly question political decisions, and you can make your own judgments about the affordability of providing quality education in the Treasure Valley today, but to beat up on someone who’s served his community and now chooses a retirement he’s earned – at best, that’s uninformed, and at worst, distasteful enough that you’ll find yourself ignored.

EDITOR–Poster, you are simply wrong. I talked to Griffin, we joked about the “honorary associate degree,” and we took him at his word that he was in for 2 yrs. and time is up in August. From the outset the GUARDIAN has never been against the CWI. We posted “both sides” of the start up debate long before the mainstream would even touch it. We strongly support the fact it was approved by the “people.”
We tried to stimulate interest in attracting candidates for the board seats –joked about getting a “free weapon permit” since ANY elected official in Idaho can carry.

We have NEVER questioned the integrity of Griffin. We HAVE been critical of some institution missteps, but there were only missteps, nothing more. Use the GUARDIAN archive and search for CWI, education, etc. and see we have been all over the board on the new school.

Here are a few posts over the years, including one from another TVCC guy:
https://boiseguardian.com/2008/06/30/can-cwi-trustees-be-trusted/