Lewis‑Clark State College outlines budget pressures, enrollment strategy and LAUNCH impacts

Lewis‑Clark State College President Dr. Cynthia Pemberton and Legislative Services Office analyst Kevin Campbell told Idaho’s Joint Finance‑Appropriations Committee on Jan. 27 that the small public college is contending with a salary‑pay gap, modest formula cuts in the coming year and steady gains tied to the state’s LAUNCH student aid program.

Pemberton said Lewis‑Clark (LC) enrolls about 3,881 students and has a FY2025 base appropriation of about $41.7 million. Kevin Campbell, the Legislative Services Office budget analyst who presented the college overview, noted that tuition and fee revenue is reappropriated across fiscal years and cited $23.7 million in tuition and fee receipts for FY2024 that were reappropriated into FY2025.

The discussion centered on three fiscal pressures: the enrollment workload adjustment (EWA), competitive employee compensation (CEC), and operational needs for new facilities. Campbell told the committee that the EWA is a three‑year weighted credit‑hour formula administered through the State Board of Education and said Lewis‑Clark will see a reduction of $102,500 for FY2026 under that formula. Pemberton and Campbell also described how portions of CEC and other enhancements in recent years were partly funded by shifts from tuition and fee authority in some years.

Why it matters: LC is Idaho’s smallest public four‑year college and serves a high share of Pell‑eligible and first‑generation…