Moscow Education (Idaho)

As reported in today's edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The University of Idaho announced its scheduled opening day for its satellite art gallery in downtown Moscow. The gallery will be named the Ted "T.J" Pritchard Gallery in honor of the former head of the UI Department of Art and Architecture.

You mean that the University of Idaho has had a presence in downtown Moscow for the last 25 years?

Gasp! Shock!

Has anyone bothered to tell the previous City Council that fact?

Oh, wait, they already knew that.

Never mind.

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune.

Moscow, Idaho — Five additional charges of lewd and lascivious conduct have been leveled against a Tumwater, Wash., man.

Timothy Andrew Kellis is already charged with sexually abusing boys at Camp Grizzly, a Boy Scout camp near Harvard in Latah County.

Kellis, 38, is scheduled to appear in Moscow's 2^nd District Court on Thursday on one count of sexual abuse of a child younger than 16 and two counts of lewd conduct with a minor younger than 16.

County Prosecutor William Thompson, Jr., said the new charges stem from allegations by two additional victims. Lt. Charlie Spencer of the Idaho State Police said parents of boys who attended the camp are calling daily.

Kellis, a band leader at A.G. West Black High School in Tumwater, worked as a teacher at Highland High School in Craigmont from 2001 to 2006, according to an Idaho State Police report. In addition, he worked as an assistant director for the Clarkston High School marching band from 1995 to 2006, and as a Scout master in Clarkston, officials said.

Kellis was arrested April 12 in Moscow on the initial charges and was released three days later after posting $25,000 bail.

A press release from Bob Hieronymus, Executive Vice President of Administration and Advancement at New Saint Andrews College:

Editor of Poetry magazine to speak at New Saint Andrews:

Christian Wiman, the editor of Poetry magazine, one of the nation's leading poetry journals, will be New Saint Andrews College's guest speaker at its final public Disputatio of the academic year on Friday, May 2, 3:30 p.m. at the Nuart Theater in downtown Moscow.

Roy Atwood, the College's president, noted that having Wiman speak in Moscow will only enhance the community's reputation as a regional center for the arts. New Saint Andrews alumnus Aaron Rench, who is a graduate student in Oxford University's creative writing program, helped arrange Wiman's visit to the Moscow classical Christian college and to the Palouse.

Wiman became editor of Poetry in 2003, the same year the magazine received a $200 million grant from the estate of Ruth Lilly. Under Wiman's editorship, Poetry's circulation has grown from 11,000 to almost 30,000. Wiman's editorial preferences at Poetry have leaned more toward formal poems than what he calls "broken-prose confessionalism" and "the generic, self-obsessed free-verse poetry of the seventies and eighties," according to an interview published in New Yorker magazine.

Poetry magazine was founded in 1912 by Harriet Monroe, who was working as an art critic of the Chicago Tribune. Poetry's contributors have included T.S. Eliot, Ezra Pound, William Butler Yeats, Marianne Moore, Charlotte Wilder, William Carlos Williams, Basil Bunting, Yone Noguchi, Carl Rakosi, Dorothy Richardson, and Carl Sandburg.

From one of my readers:

President White was a finalist to be President of Western Washington University in Bellingham (a step down actually).

He didn't get the job though. However, someone said he applied several places and is a finalist at another spot too. I'm not sure where.

He is certainly looking to get out of town.

Most of the talk is centering around whether the Provost (Doug Baker) and the VP of Finance (Lloyd Mues) will stay where they are after he's gone.

Wouldn’t it just be cheaper to allow parents to live wherever they want and send their kids to the school of their choice rather than having them mortgage away their lives to get their kids in good schools?

From EIA:

Did School District Boundaries Lead to Mortgage Crunch?

That's the provocative thesis of Cornell University economist Robert H. Frank. Writing in the April 27 Washington Post, Frank suggests families fell victim to overborrowing in order to get their kids into better public schools:

"It is no surprise that two-income families would choose to spend much of their extra income on better education. And because the best schools are in the most expensive neighborhoods, the imperative was clear: To gain access to the best possible public school, you had to purchase the most expensive house you could afford.

"But what works for any individual family does not work for society as a whole. The problem is that a 'good' school is a relative concept: It is one that is better than other schools in the same area. When we all bid for houses in better school districts, we merely bid up the prices of those houses
….
"The best jobs go to graduates from the best colleges, and because only the best-prepared students are accepted to those colleges, it is quixotic to expect parents to bypass an opportunity to send their children to the best elementary and secondary schools they can. The financial deregulation that enabled them to bid ever larger amounts for houses in the best school districts essentially guaranteed a housing bubble that would leave millions of families dangerously overextended.

"Congress should not bail out speculators and fraudulent borrowers. But neither should it be too quick to condemn families that borrowed what the lending system offered rather than send their children to inferior schools."

You don't have to agree with Frank's analysis to recognize that literal "school choice" is already a reality for those with the means to live where they please. Any effort that expands choices for those who can't afford to move to a better neighborhood should be encouraged.

From The Education Intelligence Agency.

The following is from the online edition of the Lewiston Tribune.

The University of Idaho Bookstore will remain under the management of the university.

That recommendation came today from UI Vice President for Finance Lloyd Mues. UI officials had been considering going with private management of the bookstore, including Barnes & Noble, Follett and the Nebraska Book Company.

Disappointing statewide test scores suggest not many students have a passion for science.

From today's Idaho Statesman:

And those results also could be showing other problems with science education in Idaho:

• Are schools finding time for science after adding extra hours of instruction in reading and math?
• Are all teachers equipped to teach science?
• How well are students acclimating to a new statewide achievement test?

But when it comes to science troubles, Idaho isn't alone.

Throughout the country, states are grappling with how to boost science education and encourage students to go into science careers.

"Science scores are not that good, especially in the lower grades nationwide," said John Whitsett, National Science Teachers Association president.

Science illiteracy across the country threatens the nation's standing in business and technology, national experts say.

In Idaho, the State Board of Education beefed up science instruction beginning with the class of 2013 by increasing the required number of courses from two to three. The board got solid backing from the state's high-tech industry.

And starting with next year's freshman class, Idaho students will have to pass a 10th-grade-level science achievement exam or risk not graduating from high school.

That’s just awful, expecting a 12^th grader to demonstrate 10^th grade proficiency in science in order to graduate. No wonder the teachers unions are against it.

Update: One of my readers informs me that this article is incorrect about the UI’s current hiring practices.

Actually many, if not most departments at UI are also on a complete hiring freeze right now.

Most of the deans have done this for their respective colleges to help scrape up the money needed for a budget shortfall announced a couple months ago.

From today's Spokesman Review.

Some Washington college presidents are halting most new hires as a hedge against layoffs and other cuts, given projections of a state revenue shortfall of more than $2 billion.

Eastern Washington University President Rodolfo Arevalo implemented a "soft hiring freeze" in mid-April, saying the school is facing the possibility of significant cuts in the next legislative session.

At Washington State University, President Elson Floyd this week ordered a similar strategy for administrative hires -- but not faculty jobs -- asking administrators to fill only "essential" or emergency positions.

Compare that to the University of Idaho:

Other colleges in the region haven't taken similar steps. Spokane's private colleges, Gonzaga and Whitworth, don't rely on state funding and are hiring steadily. The University of Idaho also hasn't changed its hiring practices this spring, officials said.

Is the University of Idaho immune from the economic realities hitting neighboring state schools? 

From Clayton Cramner:

One of the Idaho Education Association's goals is to have the legislature mandate a minimum starting salary for teachers of $40,000 a year. Look, I do think that teachers are generally underappreciated and often underpaid. But here's a reality check. In Ada County (where the capital is located), and the median household income in 2004 was $50,754 per year, this would mean that a starting teacher would be making probably $10,000 a year more than the average worker (figuring that many but not all of those households have both husband and wife working). Okay, you could argue about this a bit I suppose; a lot of non-teachers here don't have college degrees--although a lot do. But many of those non-teachers have filthy, disgusting jobs that involve significant risk of injury, don't have health insurance through their employer, have no hope of tenure, and work twelve months of the year--not ten.

There are a lot of counties in Idaho where this proposal makes no sense at all. In Elmore County, one of the two counties that make up my district, the median household income in 2004 was $37,148 per year. This would mean that starting teachers in Elmore County would be making almost twice what the average worker does.

When you get to some of the more remote counties, like Madison County, the median household income drops to $32,569 per year. If starting teachers get paid twice what the average person earns (some of whom may have been working for twenty years), this is not going to make any friends for the IEA.

As reported in Friday’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Bryan Fischer, executive director of the Idaho Values Alliance, said Celebrezze and other school officials are misguided for supporting the students' effort in any way.

"It's always a mistake for any public institution to endorse the practice of homosexual behavior," he said. "It's being presented as an anti-bullying outreach, but it's really an outreach meant to indoctrinate impressionable teenagers that homosexual behavior is a normal and acceptable alternative to heterosexuality."

He said there are extreme health risks associated with homosexual behavior, citing the U.S. Centers for Disease Control as his source for information.

"More than 80 percent of HIV/AIDS victims are either men who have sex with men or intravenous drug users," he said. "So if the school was going to send a message to students about homosexuality, it ought to be 'This lifestyle is as dangerous to you as shooting up with drugs,' and to say to them, 'We love you too much not to tell you the truth about homosexual behavior.'

"If the school promotes this day, they're promoting behavior which has severe health risks to their students and that is inexcusable."

During the Day of Silence, organized by the national Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, some students and faculty members will remain silent to bring attention to bullying and harassment some students face because of their sexual orientation.

…

Moscow High School Principal Bob Celebrezze said contrary to what some people might think, the Day of Silence isn't necessarily meant to promote a gay lifestyle, but to "bring attention that bullying can lead to an unsafe environment to gay and lesbian students."

"In this particular case, a very small groups of students, with teacher permission, would be ... participating in the Day of Silence in the halls, not the classroom," Celebrezze said. It's "to bring attention to the suicide rates of gay and lesbian students nationally."

Celebrezze said he thinks some people may be misinformed about the Day of Silence.

"The Day of Silence won't interrupt learning," he said.

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

The Whitman County Health Department is encouraging people to wash their hands thoroughly after recent norovirus outbreaks in the surrounding area.

Public Health Programs Manager Michael Barker said in an e-mail accompanying a public health advisory that no cases of norovirus have been identified in Whitman County, but "the importance of prevention cannot be stressed enough."

Norovirus is a common, highly contagious virus that causes gastroenteritis and often affects nursing homes and other group living facilities.

Symptoms include nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. Most people recover from the illness in one to three days.

The health advisory states that people who have had norovirus can remain contagious for up to two weeks after symptoms start.

People, especially employees at health facilities and those who serve food, should wash their hands thoroughly with warm water and soap to prevent spreading the virus.

Contaminated surfaces should be washed with a strong bleach solution, according to the health advisory.

Donna Anderson of the North Central District Health Department in Lewiston said she knows of no recent norovirus outbreaks in Latah County.

Anderson said in early April that about 35 people at Good Samaritan Village were sicked by the norovirus, and that facility employees did a good job of cleaning and working to keep the virus in check.

She said other small norovirus outbreaks were reported a few weeks ago at another long-term care facility in Moscow and at the Moscow Volunteer Fire Department.

Anderson stressed that norovirus is common and often spreads through group health-care facilities.

The following article ran in today’s Daily News.

University of Idaho President Tim White is considering a position at another institution.

University spokeswoman Tania Thompson released a brief statement late Friday night confirming that White has been approached by another university "about the potential to take the helm there," and that he is in discussions with that institution.

Thompson wrote via e-mail that she had no further information.

White has informed the University of Idaho Board of Regents and the university's leadership, according to the release.

"My commitment to our effort to advance the University of Idaho is unchanged and I continue to work daily to serve the university and the people of Idaho," White stated in the release. "The transformative work in which we have been engaged together has gained national attention. Indeed, because of this collective effort I remain confident that even better days lie ahead."

White, who has a State of the University speech scheduled for Monday, has been president since August 2004. He previously served as interim president, executive vice president and provost at Oregon State University. 

I have it from a reliable source that UI President Tim White is moving on to a job somewhere else.

It will probably be announced tomorrow.

Another setback for the University of Idaho.

• Education survey reveals 'head-scratching' results (OneNewsNow.com) 

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director of the Idaho Values Alliance:

A new survey conducted by Ellison Research confirms what an Idaho poll co-sponsored by the IVA shows: many parents prefer educational alternatives to conventional public schools.

The survey, which included all 50 states, found that on a scale of 1-5, with 5 being the best, Americans gave public schools a rating of 3. In ascending order, they gave higher grades to home schooling (3.14), charter schools (3.41), private Christian schools (3.69), Catholic schools (3.74), and private non-religious schools (3.86).

Surely this is an argument for increasing parental choice in education, including right here in the Gem State, through such reforms as making it easier to start charter schools, lifting the cap on charter school expansion, and granting either education tax credits or generous deductions for parents who enroll their children in private school.

The Friedman Foundation commissioned an Idaho poll, co-sponsored by the IVA, that revealed that just 12% of Idaho's registered voters would choose regular public school if they had a full-range of options. A striking 39% would choose private school, 25% would choose a charter school, and 21% would choose home school.

When you are a liberal, choice is good.

Except educational choice. Then you must be indoctrinated taught by the state.

A quick backstory for my out-of-town readers. The University of Idaho’s Department of Theater and Film is currently putting on the play Urinetown.

Here’s a conversation I overheard today between two guys:

“I went to Urinetown last night.”

“Where is that?”

“At the University of Idaho.”

“Are they calling UI ‘Urinetown’ now?”

I about bust a gut.

A parody of a Daily News editorial, with absolutely no apologies to the editorial board.

Sex ed Needles should be available to all

A state law that goes into effect in September gives schools an out when it comes to teaching sex education safe needle use. Those that choose to instruct students in the oft-controversial subject must adhere to standards put in place by the Healthy Youth Act.

The guidelines require subject matter to go beyond abstinence-only, deterrent-based teaching methods previously employed by some districts.

That's a necessity in today's world, no matter how you look at it.

It's commonly known that abstaining from sexual intercourse intravenous drug use is the only sure-fire way to avoid pregnancy and exposure to sexually transmitted diseases stay clean, but statistics show many teens choose to face those risks despite the potential consequences.

Many argue that showing teens how to use condoms and other means of contraception needles condones sexual activity drug use so long as the appropriate measures are taken. While that may be the case in some instances, teens should be equipped with the knowledge to make well-informed choices before they engage in an act that could drastically alter their lives.

In a perfect world parents would assume the responsibility of teaching their children about the birds and the bees drug use. That's a responsibility many parents abdicated in favor of parenting by proxy of the public schools.

A good school system is not a substitute for poor parenting, but school districts must be prepared to tread where some parents won't.

Those who object to having their children taught about safe sex needle swapping should have the option of pulling them out of class on days when that is part of the lesson plan.

Likewise, students should be informed that contraceptives needle swaps are not 100 percent effective under any circumstance, and there are inherent risks for those who are sexually active drug users. Abstinence should be a key element of the curriculum, but the lessons can't stop there.

Sex education Drug use will always be a taboo subject for some, no matter how it's handled.

That doesn't mean it shouldn't be taught at all.

Who would support an education system that cripples America’s ability to compete in the global marketplace? The National Education Association, the American Federation of Teachers, and their thousands of affiliated unions. They have vested interests in maintaining the educational status quo. Even if it makes us lag behind Azerbaijan.

—CUF Executive Director Richard Berman

The Heartland Institute has issued its new school choice scorecard. Arizona is #1. Idaho is #25.

There are 23 questions and therefore 23 possible points. The questions are as follows (and are
explained in more detail later in this report):
Vouchers
1. Does the state have a voucher program? (Yes=1)
2. Are disabled and special-needs children eligible/targeted?(Yes=1)
3. Are resources means-tested?(Yes=1)
4. Does the state have universal eligibility? (Yes=1)
5. Is the number of students who may use a voucher legislatively unrestricted? (Yes=1)
6. Is the voucher worth at least 25 percent of public school per-pupil expenditures?(Yes=1)
7. Are religious schools allowed to participate?(Yes=1)
Charters
8. Are charter schools allowed? (Yes=1)
9. Is the number of charter schools legislatively unrestricted? (Yes=1)
10. Do charter schools have a blanket waiver from regulations not in the charter? (Yes=1)
11. Are for-profit organizations permitted to apply for a charter? (Yes=1)
12. Are charter schools fully funded? (Yes=1)
13. Are there multiple chartering authorities? (Yes=1)
14. Is there a virtual charter school? (Yes=1)
Tax Credits
15. Can parents receive a tax credit or deduction for educational expenses? (Yes=1)
16. Is the tax credit worth more than 25 percent of public school per-pupil funding? (Yes=1)
17. Is the tax credit refundable for low-income families? (Yes=1)
18. Is there a tax credit for contributions to educational scholarship programs? (Yes=1)
19. Is participation legislatively unrestricted? (Yes=1)
20. Are corporations allowed to participate in the tax credit program? (Yes=1)
Public School Choice
21. Does the state have a virtual school or incorporate distance learning into the classroom?
(Yes=1)
22. Does the state allow open enrollment? (Yes=1)
23. Does the state have magnet schools? (Yes=1)

Idaho got 5 points and a grade of “D”. 

We have got to fix this. This is Idaho. School choice should be a given. 

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

An anonymous female caller reported to Moscow police Thursday morning that she overheard a man making possibly threatening statements in the University of Idaho Commons.

Assistant Moscow Police Chief David Duke said the caller reported she heard the man saying there was going to be a shooting on campus. She did not hear any details about where, when and who was involved. The woman described the man as very heavy-set with dark hair, wearing a white T-shirt and gray vest, according to an e-mail alert issued by the UI. Duke said police reviewed video surveillance tapes from the Commons from the time the woman said the man was in the area, but could not identify the man she’d described.

Police are still looking for more information on the incident, but “at this time there’s nothing else to look into,” Duke said.

The UI e-mail asked people on campus to “remain calm but vigilant, and to report any information by calling 911.” 

As reported in yesterday’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Donicht said there will be between 2,375 and 2,400 students enrolled in Moscow schools in 2008-09.

There currently are 2,385 students in the district, not including those at the developmental preschool.

It will be interesting to see what their end-year numbers end up being.

I’ll let you know as soon as I have the data from MSD.

We certainly live in interesting times.

First, that there would be a union representing graduate students — the slave labor of academia.

Second, that students at WSU would want their union cards rescinded.

And finally, that the union would mislead them.

As reported in the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

About 200 Washington State University graduate student employees have signed letters that will be sent to the Washington Public Employment Relations Commission requesting to have their union cards rescinded.

Steven Davis, a member of At What Cost, said many student employees were misled when they signed the cards. Unknown to many of them, signing the card meant they were pledging their support to the union that represents more than 25,000 academic student workers nationwide - the International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace, and Agricultural Implement Workers of America. Many thought signing the card indicated they wanted to explore the issue further.

"There's plenty of students that want their card back," Davis said.

Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire recently signed a law allowing student employees at WSU the right to be represented by the union. The law goes into effect in June, and WSU students will vote whether to ratify their contract with the university in June if they elect to unionize.

At least 70 percent of graduate student employees must approve joining the union for it to be ratified. The union must then submit a petition for certification to the Washington Public Employment Relations Committee before contract negotiations can begin.

• Parents Urged to Stage 'Day of Silence Walkout' 

Where else but in the People’s Republic of Moscow.

From Bryan Fischer, Executive Director of the Idaho Values Alliance:

PARENTS URGED TO KEEP STUDENTS HOME ON "DAY OF SILENCE"

This Friday is the day that homosexual activists intend to saturate America's high schools with the message the homosexuality, lesbianism and transgenderism are just fine for teens, and to try to convince peers that resistance to the normalization of homosexuality is hateful and bigoted.

 

This brainwashing extravaganza is sponsored by one of the most militant and well-funded homosexual pressure groups in America, the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN).

 

While hundreds of high schools in California officially plan to participate, at this date only one school in Idaho - Moscow High - has chosen to sponsor this day of indoctrination.

 

A coalition of pro-family groups is calling on families to keep their students home on Friday if their school is providing any kind of official support for the Day of Silence.

 

As in many areas of life, money talks when mere talk is told to take a hike. One of the best ways to get the attention of school administrators is through dollars, or lack thereof, and the school gets no money for a student any day he doesn't show up and sit his fanny down in a seat.

 

That's why schools are so zealous to contact you if your child doesn't show up at school. If any of you have information on how involved Moscow High School will be in sponsoring this one-day "Re-education Camp" on sexuality, please contact us here at the IVA.

Interesting news, especially considering we spend $10,000 per year per child to educate Moscow kids.

I wonder if this lack of achievement will result in calls to spend more money?

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Moscow Superintendent Candis Donicht said the direct mathematics and writing assessments are good tools for measuring what students are doing well in, and where they may need some help.

Moscow students could use some help in writing, judging from the most recent test results.

Only 57 percent of Moscow seventh-graders wrote at a proficient level, compared to the state average of 65 percent. Seventy-two percent of Moscow ninth-graders wrote at a proficient level, compared to the state's 74 percent average.

"This shows some of our weaker scores," Donicht said, adding that the district's scores usually tend to be above state average.

 

The following letter to the editor appeared in today’s Moscow-Pullman Daily News:

Prior to Professor Ayad Rahmani's "architorture" faux-protest a few weeks back, I had heard only pride expressed about the buildings on Bishop Boulevard from Pullman residents, civic leaders and elected officials. Many have rightfully praised native son Duane Brelsford Jr.'s Corporate Pointe, Fireside Grille, and Village Centre Cinemas, as well as the new Pullman Regional Hospital.

Now, much as presidential candidate Barack Obama has been doing for the past week, Rahmani, who called Bishop Boulevard "counter-human," has tried to perform damage control (Opinion, April 18.)

Unfortunately for Rahmani, his Viewpoint column in the Oct. 26 issue of WSU Today completely undermined his efforts.

Sure, Rahmani is concerned about the "built environment," but only because a "worldly faculty member wants to be proud of his or her choice of place, not making apologies to those who visit" and "high-class faculty will refuse to live in scattered and inconsequential buildings."

His call for the public and the private sectors to work together also rings hollow. In his column, Rahmani claimed only the university can "save" Pullman. Pullman's housing represents the "worst of the effects of a market economy." Developers persist in building homes with "materials and planning that are highly wasteful and unsustainable." The city is "too bogged down in trying to increase tax revenues to worry about the role of architecture in improving matters." Rahmani advocated a Washington State University land grab on Grand Avenue, which "shows little beyond gas stations and neglected farm buildings," under the guise of "student housing."

Rahmani stated, "This need not be a divisive issue." Unfortunately, we nonworldly, low-class, nonfaculty types get bitter. We cling to offensive "mcmansions" with garages or inconsequential cookie-cutter homes or antipathy to people who insult and disparage our town and the people who live in it as a way to explain our frustrations.

Tom Forbes, Pullman

The following is from the online edition of the Lewiston Tribune.

KOOSKIA — Clearwater Valley High School students were kept out of their Kooskia classrooms for the first hour today while the school was disinfected after notification of a case of staph infection.

“We have taken precautionary measures,” said Superintendent Wayne Davis. 

Pullman has had more than its share of arsons over the last year.

From KREM News in Spokane:

Firefighters responded to several fires early this morning on the Washington State University campus.

The first fire on call went out just before 1 a.m.

The two largest fires were at the Stephenson East dorm on the second floor where fire crews found a bulletin board on fire.

Another fire was later started in the Stephenson lobby.

And a fire official told KREM 2 that a fire damaged a part of a wall.

Students were evacuated, but allowed back into Stephenson around 2:30 a.m.

Smaller fires were extinguished outside of the Owen Science Library and the Fine Arts building in trash cans and shrubbery.

These fires are being called suspicious by the Pullman Fire Dept.

WSU KREM 2 campus reporter Brent Weisberg says police detained a 21-year-old man at the scene this morning.

No word yet on how much damage was done.

From the Idaho Press.

Not great news for the University of Idaho. UI doesn’t fair well under competition.

BOISE — The Board of Regents of Concordia University has approved the university's intent to offer a degree-granting law program in Boise.

The private college in Portland says it plans to establish the Concordia University Law School in Boise in the near future. The board, which made the decision April 11, also authorized University President Charles Schlimpert to begin a search for a nationally recognized dean of the law school.

The dean will lead the planning, organization and operation of the new law school upon final approval from the board.   

Concordia University is a private, Lutheran, liberal arts university. Historically, the university said it has drawn students from Idaho as well as throughout the Northwest.

University officials noted that Boise is one of the few major metropolitan areas in the country without a law school. The University of Idaho has been working on plans to increase the presence of its law school in Boise.

The Concordia Law School will support the needs and aspirations of college graduates and the business, legal and public policy communities of the entire state, school officials said.

Via: Barrett Schroeder

The following article ran in today’s Lewiston Tribune.

MOSCOW - A 38-year-old Tumwater, Wash., teacher has been arrested on allegations that he had unlawful sexual contact with two boys at Camp Grizzly last summer, the Idaho State Police said Tuesday in a news release.

Timothy Andrew Kellis was a counselor at the Harvard-area Boy Scout camp when he engaged in a "continuous course of contact" that included fondling and lewd and lascivious contact with the boys, who were younger than 16, according to ISP.

He was booked into the Latah County Jail on $25,000 bond, which he posted Tuesday morning, according to the District Court clerk's office. He is charged with one felony count of sexual abuse of a child younger than 16, and two felony counts of lewd conduct with a minor younger than 16.

His preliminary hearing is set for 10:30 a.m. April 24.

According to ISP, Detective Lyle Bolon started an investigation into Kellis last Thursday. He was arrested two days later in Moscow without incident, according to ISP.

In the news release, ISP also said Kellis worked as a teacher at Highland High School in Craigmont from 2001 to 2006. He may have worked as a counselor at Camp Grizzly prior to 2007, according to the news release, and he has taught at a Tumwater school since 2006.

ISP is requesting that anyone with additional information on Kellis contact Bolon at (208) 799-5020.

As reported in today’s edition of the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.

Although UI professors earn less than those at peer institutions, the university's salaries are higher on average than both Boise State University and Idaho State University.

At UI, full-time professors earn an average of $82,366 per year, while associate professors earn an average of $62,957 and assistant professors earn $54,340, according to faculty salary data from the National Center for Educational Statistics.

Frank Zang, director of communications and marketing for BSU, said full-time professors at his institution earn an average of $75,020 per year, associate professors earn an average of $60,558, and assistant professors earn an average of $53,766 per year.

Andrew Taylor, public information specialist for Idaho State University, said professor salaries at ISU average $70,841 a year, while associate professors (including non-tenure track) make an average of $57,829 per year and assistant professors (including non-tenure track) make an average of $46,905 per year. Those averages were calculated last spring, for the 2006-2007 academic year.

UI Provost and faculty council member Doug Baker said UI professors earn more than other professors in the state because the UI as an institution is more focused on research, whereas the other Idaho universities are more teaching focused.

"We have different peer groups," Baker said. "We're a research-extensive university. ... The University of Idaho, being more research focused, has a peer group of higher salaries."

Baker said UI President Tim White has pledged to give salary increases of 4 percent per year in order to keep UI "on track" with other peer institutions.