Citizen Portal
Sign In

Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!

College of Western Idaho tells JFAC enrollment up, faces capacity and EWA limits

AI-Generated Content: All content on this page was generated by AI to highlight key points from the meeting. For complete details and context, we recommend watching the full video. so we can fix them.

Summary

College of Western Idaho officials told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee that enrollment growth and industry-driven CTE demand have strained facilities, faculty and student supports; the college requested a $265,000 enrollment workload adjustment for FY2026 and described a nearly 1,000-student systemwide waitlist across programs.

The Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee heard a presentation on the College of Western Idaho’s base budget and FY2026 request on the morning the committee met, including testimony from Legislative Services Office analyst Kevin Campbell and CWI President Gordon Jones.

CWI told the committee that enrollment has grown sharply and that the college is running up against space, faculty and student-support limits. "Growth continues ... at the community college level. At its highest level, we are up this year 13% in our academic enrollment," President Gordon Jones said. He added that some programs — notably nursing, automotive technology, welding, cybersecurity and agricultural sciences — face long wait lists: "I believe it's almost a hundred people on our nursing waiting…

Already have an account? Log in

Subscribe to keep reading

Unlock the rest of this article — and every article on Citizen Portal.

  • Unlimited articles
  • AI-powered breakdowns of topics, speakers, decisions, and budgets
  • Instant alerts when your location has a new meeting
  • Follow topics and more locations
  • 1,000 AI Insights / month, plus AI Chat
30-day money-back on paid plans