CWI, a 2-year college, wanted to offer an inexpensive bachelor’s degree. BSU resisted

Executives at two of Idaho’s four-year universities opposed a request from the College of Western Idaho to launch a bachelor of applied science degree in business administration. But the Idaho State Board of Education gave it the green light anyway.

CWI says the new degree will help meet local demand and target students who already hold associate of applied science degrees.

“This is in response to needs in our community,” CWI President Gordon Jones said at a State Board meeting Wednesday, where the degree was ultimately approved in a 5-3 vote.

Gordon said the proposal received resounding support from the Treasure Valley business community. Over two dozen members, including the Nampa and Caldwell chambers of commerce, penned a letter in favor, saying the state has a shortage of skilled workers.

The letter noted that the CWI degree offers a cheaper option at a time when many high school graduates choose not to attend college because of the cost. A bachelor’s degree typically requires four years of college to complete.

CWI estimates the business administration degree would cost $170 per credit hour, compared with $375 per credit hour at other state universities.

Labor market data show a demand for workers with business administration degrees in Idaho, including in sales manager positions, which are projected to grow by 28% over the next decade, and account manager positions, which are slated to grow by 9%, according to the college.

Idaho State University President Kevin Satterlee and administrators at Boise State University firmly opposed the degree path, saying it would cause unnecessary duplication within the state’s higher education system. University of Idaho President Scott Green, also at the meeting, did not comment on the proposal.

“We have to get students to go on, and we have room in all of our institutions for these students,” Satterlee, who retires on Dec. 31, said. “We should not be starting the hunger games of cutting each others throats to get those students, but working together. … If we declare that business is an applied science, then there is nothing that is not an applied science.”

Jones told the Idaho Statesman that the degree would not “steal” students from the state’s universities.

He said a bachelor’s of applied science degree is more hands-on than a bachelor of arts or bachelor of science degree, which are typically associated with four-year universities and may have a more theoretical focus.

Over a dozen community colleges in neighboring states offer bachelor of applied science degrees, he added.

He said CWI brought forth the proposal after hearing from students, employers, municipal governments and elected officials.

Courses will be offered in Boise, Nampa and online, according to a State Board meeting agenda. The degree program would be part of CWI’s School of Social Science and Public Affairs. The college is based in Nampa, but it also has campus locations in Boise.

“We’re all part of the same ecosystem,” Jones said by phone, referring to Idaho’s higher education institutions. “This is a story, in my mind, of strengthening and adding to that ecosystem. This is not a story of subtraction or loss.”

Jones said that if there were other bachelor’s-degree paths the community needed or asked for, the college would “absolutely” consider them and work with the State Board to evaluate them.

He added that the CWI serves a different niche than the state’s four-year universities. The college is a commuter school and doesn’t offer residency like Boise State, U of I and ISU do. It also specializes in applied education, rather than research.

For the bachelor of applied science program, CWI projects an enrollment of 25 students in the first year and 150 students by the fourth and fifth years. If enrollment missed those numbers, the program could be discontinued.

The next step for the proposal to move forward is approval from CWI’s accrediting agency, the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, which has a history of OK’ing similar degree paths for other two-year colleges in the Northwest.