A day after Boise State University announced a major reorganization plan, the bottom-line impacts are an unknown.
In the short run, the state’s largest university will eliminate two dean’s positions. However, faculty and staff positions at Boise State’s three affected programs should remain intact, interim President Jeremiah Shinn said.
“We think that there’s going to be plenty to do, and our goal is to be sure that our people serving these staff roles find a place,” Shinn told EdNews in a Wednesday interview. “And in terms of faculty, we don’t anticipate any academic changes.”
The restructuring plan — announced Tuesday and first reported by EdNews — will merge the College of Education and the School of Public Service, and eliminate the College of Innovation and Design.
The shakeup comes as Gov. Brad Little and the Legislature are squeezing funding for most state agencies — putting higher education squarely in their crosshairs. They could cut 4% from higher ed budgets this year. The cuts could reach 5% next year.
Shinn said he couldn’t estimate how much money Boise State might save through restructuring. That’s one reason why the plan didn’t appear in a report Boise State sent to legislative budget-writers in late January. At that time, lawmakers asked Boise State and other state agencies for specifics on how they would absorb additional budget cuts in 2026 and 2027.
Savings from restructuring could come over time, partly through staff attrition, Shinn said.
Proposed budget cuts could cost Boise State roughly $16.5 million this year and next year. “We’re at the point now where trimming 1%, 2% out of every department is making every department just a little less ready to serve our students.”
So Shinn describes this week’s restructuring — with its unspecified budget impact — as a long-term strategic shift.
He believes the Education and Public Service merger is a natural tie-in. The two programs share physical space on campus, and their missions also mesh. Both programs are “externally facing,” he said — and closely work with school districts and state and local governments. Working collaboratively, the College of Education and Public Service could also emerge as a leader in civics education, in conjunction with the national America250 celebration marking the country’s 250th anniversary.
And Shinn said Boise State will still emphasize innovation, even without a college dedicated to innovation.
Launched in 2015 — and originally headed by Gordon Jones, now president at the College of Western Idaho — the college was designed to spur collaboration across academic fields. The College of Innovation and Design was a “wild success,” Shinn said, and he expects other colleges to pick things up from here.
“There’s a culture on campus that I think is more ready to support innovative thinking,” he said.
The restructuring comes as Boise State rides a wave of high-level churn — from the president and provost’s positions to the education and innovation colleges. With these colleges headed by interim deans, Boise State had an “opportunity” for changes, Shinn said.
But the change caught one of the interim deans off guard.
Jen Schneider — who has headed the College of Innovation and Design since October 2024 — said she learned only Monday about the pending shutdown. Beyond saying that the move was budget-driven, Schneider said she had few details about how Boise State planned to close the college.
“Of course, I disagree with this decision, and how it was carried out, at the profoundest level,” Schneider said in a Wednesday LinkedIn post.
On Wednesday, Shinn called Schneider “a fantastic colleague,” and said he understands the uncertainty surrounding the changes.
“I have full empathy for what folks are going through,” he said. “(But) I sincerely believe that making difficult decisions now … potentially prevents us from having to make even more difficult decisions on a shorter timeline sometime in the future.”
