Lewis‑Clark State College seeks targeted funding to close faculty pay gap and sustain technical programs

Kevin Campbell, budget and policy analyst with the Legislative Services Office, opened the Lewis‑Clark State College budget briefing, saying the college has 3,881 students and a FY2025 base general‑fund budget of $41,700,000, not including tuition and fees.

“Tuition and fees are an essential part of the financial management,” Campbell told the committee, explaining that institutions reappropriate tuition and fee revenue across fiscal years and that endowment funds — including the Normal School Fund — have legally specified sources and purposes under Idaho law (Idaho Code §33‑304).

The core of the presentation came from Dr. Cynthia Pemberton, president of Lewis‑Clark State College, who described how the Enrollment Workload Adjustment (EWA) formula and a persistent salary differential with K‑12 affect the college’s finances and recruiting. Pemberton said Lewis‑Clark’s weighted credit‑hour factor averages 1.85 versus 2.51 at sister institutions and that the gap “means for 3 decades, LC State has received, on average, 26% less possibility of having the credit hours produced precipitate a positive…