College of Western Idaho President Bert Glandon told lawmakers this morning that when the community college first opened to students in 2009, 1,200 students showed up. “Last week, our first classes for the spring semester, just shy of 30,000 students now call the College of Western Idaho as their college of choice,” he said.

In the past year, Glandon told the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, CWI awarded nearly 17,000 degrees, certificates and diplomas. “We are aggressively working with high school students throughout the state of Idaho to provide dual credits,” he said, and just in the past year, the number of dual credits CWI awarded increased 94.3 percent.

“CWI has not taken a tuition increase in four years,” Glandon told JFAC. “During that time we have seen our enrollment grow through the roof.” The college has maintained a balanced budget, he said. “We are proud of the lean mindset of our faculty and staff.”

CWI requested two items in its state budget for next year, a $1.6 million budget boost to offset a portion of the gap between its per-credit funding level and Idaho’s other community colleges; and a $576,200 request for additional staff. “We are no longer a young, bubbling startup,” Glandon said, and are becoming a large institution. Neither item was recommended for funding in Gov. Butch Otter’s budget proposal.

“The requests before you are sorely needed to ensure we are able to continue to deliver educational opportunities to the 30,000 Treasure Valley residents who seek them,” he said. Glandon also predicted the school’s tremendous growth will continue.

He noted that if lawmakers approve state employee raises but don’t grant state funding to cover the cost at his institution, it’ll have to be covered with budget cuts. “It does create a dynamic within our institution,” he said. “As I said, we don’t increase our tuition, we find it out of our operating funds, which creates a leaner institution than we already have.”

Rep. Maxine Bell, R-Jerome, asked Glandon, “Do you have a solution?” Glandon responded, “Madam Chair, I have a solution,” and Bell interrupted, amid some light laughter, “One that I can accept?”

Glandon said CWI wouldn’t be able to hold tuition down without its soaring enrollment numbers, which bring in additional tuition funds as the college grows; he noted that that’s not true at the state’s other institutions.

Under questioning from lawmakers, Glandon said about 9,000 of that 30,000 figure comprises high school students taking dual-credit courses through the college.

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