Boise State outlines LAUNCH enrollment gains, free‑speech initiative and says non‑tax funds covered lawsuit defense

Boise State University President Marlene Tromp told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Jan. 29 that the university is expanding student-access programs, increasing graduation rates and has paid legal defense costs for a recent lawsuit from non‑tax funds.

Why it matters: The university briefed lawmakers on tuition-and-fee fund history, expenditure shares and FY2026 requests; members pressed the president on how student-support changes and curricular options respond to state law and to recent State Board directives on diversity‑related operations.

LAUNCH and student outcomes: Tromp said 1,300 students at Boise State are enrolled in LAUNCH and that 600 of those rely on LAUNCH as their only financial support. She said the program directs students into high-demand fields including nursing, radiologic sciences, computer science, business and engineering. "We have 1,300 students enrolled in LAUNCH and 600 of those students have LAUNCH as their only financial support," Tromp said.

Tromp highlighted institutional performance improvements driven by a student-success focus. She said Boise State’s graduation rate has increased significantly over five years as the university restructured supports and consolidated related work into more broadly focused student-success centers.

Free‑speech initiative and UF courses: Tromp described the Institute for Advancing American Values, a program she said was created to expose students to a wide range of voices and ideas and to promote campus civil dialogue. She noted Boise State’s faculty senate and student government have adopted the Chicago principles on free expression. On required first‑year sequences (UF 100/200), Tromp and other university representatives said students must take the course sequence but can select from many sections; a section with gender-related content is an option, not a requirement.

Lawsuit defense: Tromp told the committee Boise State "used only non taxpayer funds to support the defense of that lawsuit" and estimated the university has spent about $1,500,000. She said employees who testified in the related trial either acted in their scope as general counsel staff or used personal time to attend, and that she does not expect the appeal to add substantially to the total.

Budget posture and performance budgeting: The Legislative Services Office presentation for Boise State noted personnel accounts for about 81.8% of BSU expenditures, with operating at 16.5% and capital at 1.7%. Tromp said Boise State uses a responsibility-centered management model (a form of performance budgeting) in which academic units manage revenues and costs; she said that approach supported the university in reaching a balanced budget in an inflationary environment and produced relatively low administrative spending per student.

Micron, workforce and capacity requests: Committee members asked how Boise State would use proposed state capacity funds; Tromp listed priorities including nursing (projecting the capacity to add about 40 nursing graduates per year with additional funding), cybersecurity support for small businesses, and growth in computer science and engineering programs.

Ending: Tromp closed by emphasizing Boise State’s role in statewide workforce development and by offering to provide the committee with requested details on legal expenditures, travel or other defense-related costs and on course inventories for UF sections.