b'Stevens-Henager College Idaho Falls throughout the summer, a great deal of uncertainty Type of Institution Public loomed over campus reopening plans. Strategies fell into roughly three categories: planning for in-person Level of Institution 4 Year instruction with social distancing, creating a hybrid Campus Setting Small City model or limiting students on campus, and moving Average Net Price $26,463 to online-only instruction. Schools also faced the Number of Students 85 short-term nancial challenges of doling out pro-rated refunds to students for room and board, dorm With campus on the shores of the Snake River,cleaning operations, and increased technology costs Stevens-Henager College-Idaho Falls is a college ofassociated with moving to online courses.23business and health sciences and a campus of SHC in eastern Idaho. SHC Idaho Falls oers 36-monthThe response to the pandemic is impacting Idaho bachelors degrees and 20-month associate degreeshigher education in two unique ways. Firstly, Idaho in Healthcare and Business. To provide a hands-onschools are struggling to recruit students. Entering learning experience, the Idaho Falls campus featuresthe 2019-2020 school year, undergraduate enrollment healthcare laboratories and computer labs. Oncewas already down by 4 percent at the U of I and enrolled, every student is issued a new laptop thatISU.24 As the pandemic began picking up in the becomes theirs to keep once they graduate. Spring of 2020, early projections suggested college enrollment in Idaho and nationwide would plunge DILEMMAS TO HIGHER20 to 40 percent. Fortunately, enrollment at all eight EDUCATION public institutions was down just 5 percent for the There are several worrying trends confronting Idaho2020-2021 school year. The largest hit to higher higher education. Rising tuition amounts is one of theeducation has been the 16 percent decrease in high biggest dilemmas in the state. The 2019 Education Factschool students taking dual credit courses. College Book, issued by the Idaho State Board of Education,and university enrollment will continue to face an showed that overall tuition and fees at four-yearuncertain, uphill battle as the pandemic rages on.25universities have increased 47 percent since 2008.Secondly, budget shortfalls have worsened in the The university with the highest tuition increase waswake of the pandemic. As college and university University of Idaho, which raised the tuition rate bycampuses closed, they had to write o millions of 53 percent in the last 12 years. This is in part becausedollars in revenue in the forms of student housing, funding for higher education is coming more fromparking, campus events, sta furloughs and other tuition fees than state funding. As might be expected,sources. Moreover, as the economy reeled, Governor reports show that statewide, enrollment numbers forBradley Little ordered two across-the-board cuts post-secondary education continue to decline. In 2016,across all branches of state government; the rst more than 78,000 students were enrolled in highercut aected higher education by $3 million and education institutions; in 2019, that number was justthe second by $15 million. Additional losses are over 74,000. On a positive note, the report shows highincurred through transitioning to online schooling school graduation rates have continually risen sinceand the future costs of reopening (testing, scanning, 2014, hitting 81 percent as of 2019.22 etc.). Universities are hoping to reverse the nancial The COVID-19 pandemic response is also takingdamage via a return to face-to-face learning but a heavy toll on higher education, both within thedoing so remains clouded by uncertainty.24state and throughout the country. By the middle of March 2020, more than 1,100 colleges and universities across all 50 states cancelled in-person classes or shifted to online-only instruction, while many spring graduation ceremonies were cancelled or postponed. As coronavirus concerns continued 50 I D A H O I N F R A S T R U C T U R E G U I D E B O O K'