Boise State highlights LAUNCH enrollment, DEI center reorganization and $1.5M legal defense cost

Boise State University President Marlene Tromp told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee on Jan. 29 that the university has 1,300 students enrolled in the state’s LAUNCH program, with roughly 600 students relying on LAUNCH as their only financial support. She said the program provides access to in-demand fields including nursing, computer science, radiologic sciences and engineering.

Tromp described a multi-year effort to transform student-support centers that had formerly been organized under diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) labels into a model focused on student success. She said that, in recent years, the university originally had approximately eight staff in related centers and that the university reported a reduction of five staff positions in the restructuring; Tromp said the university may need to expand support again as the model evolves to serve all students. Tromp credited the shift with contributing to a substantial increase in Boise State’s graduation rate over five years.

Lawsuit defense costs: Senator Jim Carlson asked whether state funds were used to defend a lawsuit brought against the university; Tromp said Boise State used “only non-taxpayer funds to support the defense of that lawsuit,” and that about $1,500,000 had been spent to date. Tromp said she did not expect the appeal to materially increase that total and noted that employees who participated in the trial did so as part of general counsel duties or by using personal leave.

Academic freedom and campus civility: Tromp described the Institute for Advancing American Values, a campus initiative designed to expose students to a broad range of perspectives and to model civil discourse. She said the campus has adopted or secured commitments to the “Chicago principles” to protect free expression and that a student-government resolution endorsing those principles passed recently. Tromp said such efforts have been paired with the university’s UF 100/200 first-year curriculum that offers many topical sections from which students may choose.

Fiscal and strategic notes: Tromp highlighted that Boise State uses a responsibility-centered management (RCM) model and said the university has a balanced budget and the lowest administrative spend per student of any public university in the state. She described institutional priorities if additional statewide capacity funding becomes available — notably increasing nursing graduates by an estimated 40 per year, expanding cybersecurity outreach and growing computer science and engineering programs.

Why it matters: LAUNCH enrollment and student-success initiatives shape access to higher education across Idaho and affect workforce pipelines in health care, cybersecurity and engineering. The university’s legal spending and the restructuring of DEI-related functions were recurring themes in lawmakers’ questions.

What’s next: Lawmakers asked Tromp to supply written assurance that university courses comply with Idaho statutes on discrimination and dignity (Idaho Code 33-138 and 33-139 were cited during the hearing) and requested detailed accounting of litigation, travel and related expenses tied to the lawsuit; Tromp said the university would provide requested breakdowns to the committee.