Lewis‑Clark State College asks for targeted funds to close faculty pay gap as enrollment stabilizes

At a Jan. 27 Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee hearing in Boise, Lewis‑Clark State College President Cynthia Pemberton urged continued legislative support for operational capacity and compensation adjustments as the college’s enrollment stabilizes and workforce‑training programs expand.

Pemberton said Lewis‑Clark, which serves about 3,881 students, is seeing enrollment increases after pandemic declines and is “North Idaho’s health care education leader.” She told the committee the college used most recent operational capacity enhancements to finish occupancy costs for the Schweitzer Career and Technical Engineering Building, support information‑technology upgrades and expand marketing, and that the institution expects to use part of a requested enhancement to make progress on salary gaps.

The budget and policy analyst for the Legislative Services Office, Kevin Campbell, presented the college’s base budget figures and explained how tuition and fee revenue is reappropriated between fiscal years. He noted Lewis‑Clark’s FY2025 base appropriation and walked committee members through recent enhancements, endowment adjustments and the effect of the State Board of Education’s enrollment workload adjustment (EWA) formula.

Why it matters: Committee members pressed on pay, enrollment and formula funding that directly affect the…