ISU Tuition & Fees

Where the Money Really Goes

Introduction

Every person who wishes to attend a college university must pay tuition to be admitted as a student. That fee which can be categorized under the title of tuition is what allows colleges to stay in business, whether they are public or private. This fee can be paid in a variety of ways including paying directly, taking out loans or through scholarships. 

The purpose of this blog is to show where Idaho State University spends its money and how that impacts the costs of tuition. College is expensive and it is important to know why it costs how much it does and where that money is going. The costs for college have continued to increase faster than what the average household income has increased by.  

Where Should Tuition Be Spent

The questions that need to be asked specifically are “should college tuition be spent in the areas where it is currently being spent” and “should tuition be handled in a different way.” It is important to find out exactly where all of this money is going, why it has increased this much, and if the increase is proportionate to the benefits to the students.

I will be reviewing the budget and income statements from ISU. Of course to run a school effectivly the money must be spent in many different areas. The key focus is proportionate spending. For example, Athletic programs, which remain a highly controversial area on how much spending should be used to maintain them, benefit some students greatly but do not benefit the entire student body so its spending should reflect that proportion. Whereas all students learn from instructors and spending should reflect in areas they pay their tuition for, to learn. That being the case, teachers have different skill sets and some are incredibly effective in their work and others are not effectively teaching their students but they still may receive the same pay.

All students must pay tuition, so that money should go into areas where the student’s tuition money should go into areas that benefit that student or students in general because it would be nearly impossible for the University to focus on all students individually. For what benefits students, I will define it as something that a large portion of the students use and find useful rather than something that only applies to a small percent of students only some of the time. 

What Are the Costs for ISU Students?

According to the ISU website, Residents and Full-Time students (which means 12 or more credits) costs $3,172.00 per semester. Part-Time students with 9 credits or less are charged $317.00 per credit. For full time non-residents the costs dramatically increase to $9,338.00 per semester. However, with the Western Undergraduate Exchange (WUE) Scholarship, which many out of state students benefit from, the costs are $4,758.00 per semester for full time.

Just looking at these numbers by themselves only show that it costs a large sum to attend ISU but it does not show exactly what is received with this expenditure. The benefits of these costs can only be measured by the individual on how much of a return they believe they will receive from the education.

Income Received from Students

One of the first things to know is how much income is generated from student’s tuition. The total enrollment income earned comes to $54 million. This does not account for the entire income of the college but it is a significant portion of it. So moving forward it will be noted what portion of the overall income comes from just from tuition. In addition where those numbers will be used in expenses.

Total Revenue

Not all of the Revenue earned from ISU is from student’s tuition, another portion comes from a State General Account.

The total revenue generated from ISU comes to almost $120 million. This shows that less than half of the revenue actually comes from student’s tuition. And instruction costs just so happens to be about 50%  as well.

Expenses

Expenses are broken into many categories and are broken down even more into subcategories when closely analyzed. However, this report is too short to cover the scope of the entire budget. The largest proportions are delegated to Instruction at 49%, The Physical Plant at 15%, and Athletic Programs and Institutional Support each coming in at roughly 10%. Nearly half of the budget goes to Instruction which covers what all students are using. Other areas such as student, public, and library services are available to and necessary for all students which means that virtually all students benefit from these areas in at least some way or another. 

The Physical plant is most likely what benefits students the least and would be the one ISU would focus on cutting back if they ever plan to lower tuition.

Athletics Programs

Athletic Programs are a big source of entertainment for students. However, not all of the students participate in an athletic program.

The total  expenses used for athletics comes to 3,250,200 dollars. This equates to less than 3 percent of the total budget. However this does not include Academic support which equals to $10.6 million this raises the total of athletics to just over 10 percent of total expenses.

Conclusions

It currently costs full time residents of Idaho $3,172 to pay for college tuition. Roughly half of this revenue is put into the instruction of the students which is where many agree where the money should be put. The instruction costs mainly includes faculty salaries but extends into other areas as well. Other expenses are mainly broken up with facilities and services students use with the exception of the physical plant.

The Physical plant deals with generators and hazardous waste with the physical plants claiming, “Hazardous Waste Conditionally Exempt Small Quantity Generators generate: * 100 kilograms or less of hazardous waste per calendar month, and accumulate 1000 kg or less of hazardous waste at any time” (Physical). The Physical plant is most likely what benefits students the least and would be the one ISU would focus on cutting back if they ever plan to lower tuition.

In the end, it is important to know where all of your tuition money is going but I can give you no correct answer of it is right on where ISU is spending its money. it is up to the individual and the school where they believe the best place for their money to be spent is.