College Case Statement

Our Journey to Destination Distinction

Destination DistinctionDestination Distinction: The Campaign for Boise State University is Boise State’s recently launched $175 million fundraising initiative. The comprehensive campaign will transform Boise State into a metropolitan research university of distinction, providing unparalleled opportunities for students, solving problems locally, nationally and globally and improving the quality of life for all Idahoans.

The campaign focuses on three areas: People, places and programs. Boise State’s students, faculty and staff (people) are our motivation and our most critical resource. New buildings, labs and other facilities (places) will allow us to impart knowledge and share in discovery. Exceptional academics and an enhanced research agenda (programs) will help us to achieve distinction.

Meeting these goals requires a broader base of support. Achieving and sustaining this level of greatness requires a commitment from our alumni, supporters and community partners. As we improve the university’s reputation, we will attract and retain talented students and faculty and secure even better opportunities.

Destination Distinction: The Campaign for Boise State University is spearheaded by the Boise State Foundation. A nonprofit Idaho organization, the Foundation is Boise State’s official fundraising organization and also serves as the custodian for donations to the university. With generous help from individuals, industry and foundations, we can achieve the goals of Destination Distinction and take Boise State to unprecedented heights. Please join us on our journey.

The Case for Support for The College of Health Sciences

Planning for the Future

The Year is 2015

Boise State University’s College of Health Sciences is nationally known for:

To be sure, the bulleted list above provides only a glimpse of the college’s distinctively dynamic destination.
The college and its programs are changing to better serve our students, the community, region and state. In tandem with the rest of the university, a positive sense of momentum, excitement, and energy
has been fostered that is accelerating our college toward our destination. Attainment of this vision serves to support a high quality of life for all Idahoans.

Now, Back to the Present!

The demand for more health professionals to meet current and projected work force shortages continues to grow. Addressing this reality dictates expanded classroom, laboratory and research facilities, increased numbers of endowed faculty and research center director positions, and an enhanced pool of scholarship dollars to support an increased number of undergraduate and graduate students accepted to our programs. Realization of this dream is essential to maintaining a high quality of life for Idaho residents.

Today, programs in the College of Health Sciences are flourishing. The number and diversity of student applicants exceeds capacity as graduates and their employers spread the word about the exceptional educational experiences to be found in the college.

Jeri Bigbee
Jody DeMeyer
Endowed Chair

Not only does she hold the state’s first endowed chair in nursing, she’s also an ambassador for the university, faculty mentor and top-notch recruiter. And that’s all in addition to her research on issues affecting rural nursing.

“One of the major objectives of my position is to enhance the faculty as a whole, especially in the area of research and scholarship,” says Jeri Bigbee, who holds the first-ever Jody DeMeyer Endowed Chair. “That’s really in keeping with the mission of the university and the movement to become a metropolitan research university of distinction.”

Bigbee says flexibility in terms of workload and management responsibilities has allowed her to become a successful faculty leader and to help develop the department’s new master’s program in population health nursing. She’s also had the opportunity to travel to all of Idaho’s health districts, illustrating Boise State’s commitment to public health nursing statewide.

When it comes to recruiting new faculty, a tough sell for any nursing school, she finds that her position is once again a powerful tool. An endowed chair speaks volumes about the university’s commitment to nursing education, she says. “To people on the outside, having an endowed chair means, ‘Wow, good things are going on [at Boise State].’”

The College of Health Sciences’ faculty and staff are passionate about serving the community, region and state by offering dynamic, progressive programs that set the standard for preparing highly qualified health professionals. The College provides an environment in which each of our students is challenged but not stymied, stretched but not broken, and taught how to think but not what to think. Our students are equipped with the gift of adaptability so they can discover and better appreciate the wonder of their place in this diverse and complex world.

Student and faculty research have grown nearly 200 percent in the past 10 years. Research centers/instutes in the college are sought after by state and federal agencies because of the high degree of utility of the findings and recommendations resulting from the projects they funded, and because the partnerships created with faculty and students have been mutually beneficial to their organizations, the community and the state.

Although programs in the College of Health Sciences can boast of the largest enrollment in Idaho, we will dramatically increase our ability to attract an even greater number of students into our programs. How? The College is intentionally expanding the diversity of the experiences currently available and increasing the integration of applied research and laboratory simulation techniques into course and program offerings. Our plan includes providing students with a wide array of opportunities to enhance their learning at both the undergraduate and graduate levels.

Programs of Excellence

Several programs housed in the College of Health Sciences have achieved national recognition for their teaching and research. Graduates from the Radiologic Sciences Department regularly score among the highest in the nation on their board exams.

The Department of Nursing offers a master’s degree program in population health nursing, and the department is recognized as a leader in developing and delivering courses using an online or hybrid format and incorporating service learning methodologies into all applicable courses.

In 2005, the Respiratory Care program produced an unprecedented six international faculty-student first-place award winners for cutting-edge research into the evaluation of ventilator function.

In 2004, 2005 and 2006, undergraduate and graduate students from the Environmental and Occupational Health program captured national first-place awards for their research.

During the past five years our research centers, staffed by faculty and student researchers, have completed studies that informed state and local decision makers in several policy areas, including the following:

The College of Health Sciences aims to have each of its programs recognized throughout the state, region, and nation as benchmarks against which all academic programs and health sciences are measured. Our current array of outstanding programs, coupled with a location in the fastest growing region in Idaho, provides us with a strategic advantage to meet this challenge. The time is right; the window of opportunity is open. Your partnership is vital to our success as we strive to add value to our students’ experiences and to the livability of our community, state and region.

Following are the initiatives and projects identified by faculty, staff, administrators and the university as imperative in moving us toward becoming an integral part of a metropolitan research university of distinction.

Respiratory Care

David and Kay MerrickRespiratory Care students are breathing easier thanks to Dr. David K. Merrick and his wife, Kay. The couple recently established the Merrick Family Respiratory Care Scholarship and was also instrumental in establishing the Gail Bishop Memorial Respiratory Therapy Scholarship several years ago.

As demand for health care grows across Idaho and beyond, so does the need for trained respiratory therapists. Scholarships such as these allow Boise State students to focus on learning how to save lives, instead of on money.

“[Kay and I] have very strong feelings about students,” Merrick says. “We want them to be as comfortable as they possibly can be, so they can focus on their education.”

As Boise’s first pulmonologist more than 30 years ago, Merrick quickly saw the need to train respiratory care professionals. In addition to his work in private practice and as medical director for Boise State’s Department of Respiratory Care, he taught a number of classes at Boise State in pulmonary medicine before retiring in 2001.

“There are so many students we would like to have helped over the years,” he says. “I got extremely fond of so many students and realized they all need help when they can get it.”

People

Student Scholarships

The rising cost of higher education makes this initiative essential for assisting need-based students and for rewarding the most outstanding students. Currently the average student graduates nearly $20,000 in debt.

Graduate Assistantships

Assistantships allow graduate students to work as research assistants half time while attending school. Assistantships offer enhanced opportunities for students in the college’s two master’s programs in nursing and health science to further their graduate education. Graduate assistantships enable Boise State’s graduate programs to recruit highly qualified students regionally and nationally. Many of the projects in which our graduate students are involved have direct application to the health care sector and business and industry in Idaho and beyond.

Health Professions Residential College Student Housing Stipends

The Health Professions Residential College (HPRC) currently attracts excellent student scholars.
Stipends would offset some of the cost of on-campus room and board, offering a greater number of high-quality student applicants the opportunity to live and learn together. Students in the HPRC enroll in similar courses, study together and integrate outside community service activities with classroom learning. Studies show that students who are engaged with the university achieve at a higher level and have a significantly lower attrition rate.

Travel Scholarships for Student Research Presentations at Conferences

College of Health Sciences students are often selected to present at regional, national or international meetings. Our students have been honored with national awards for their research efforts, and we want to support the opportunity for them to share their results with professionals throughout the U.S. Travel scholarships directly benefit students by: 1) allowing them to share their research at regional, national, and international professional conferences, raising the visibility of Boise State University’s programs; 2) providing increased networking opportunities with students and professionals from other universities, as well as industry professionals; 3) expanding the horizons of students as they visit other regions of the country, increasing the program vitality as more students are engaged in research; and 4) challenging students to leave the comfort zone of the local campus and community.

Travel Scholarships for Health Science Students to Engage in International Exchanges

With new cooperative agreements finalized between the College of Health Sciences and colleges and hospitals in China (and proposed agreements with universities and hospitals in the Netherlands, Ecuador, Japan, Saudi Arabia and Vietnam), assistance in providing stipends to fund student travel is a must. The agreements serve to promote understanding between nations and develop multicultural learning experiences between countries. The opportunity afforded by the exchange programs helps expose students to new cultures, better equips them to see their role in this ever more complex and interdependent world, and broadens the perspective of the college and the university through the experiences and stories they share upon returning home.

Residential College

Jim and Georgia GirvanJim and Georgia Girvan weren’t typical residents of a campus residential hall. Jim is dean of the College of Health Sciences and Georgia works as director of the Idaho Regional Alcohol/Drug Awareness Resource (RADAR) Network Center.

But the couple moved from their Boise townhouse to the two-bedroom suite in fall 2005 to serve for two years as faculty in residence for the Health Professions Residential College, located in Morrison Hall.

The residential college is a unique bridge between living and learning. Students live with others planning for health sciences careers and experience personal and academic enrichment through close contact with residential faculty, community projects, group social activities and interaction with community leaders.

“We saw ourselves as cheerleaders,” says Georgia. “We helped with exploring possible majors and encouraged students to find campus resources. They became part of our family and we relished the opportunity to support them.”

That encouragement worked. Of the 30 freshmen who went through the program during their tenure, about 28 returned to campus — a much higher retention rate than the general student population.

After two years the couple passed the torch to a new faculty in residence and returned home, but not without regrets. “It was a fantastic experience. We miss the contact with students,” Jim says.

Professorships and Endowed Professorships

There are three levels of funding opportunities for professorships and endowed professorships. The unendowed professorships level allows an individual or organization to provide ongoing money to augment existing faculty salary lines, thus attracting more experienced faculty into available positions. The senior faculty members holding professorships elevate the educational opportunities available to students and provide high-level research partnerships for colleagues.

Jody Oliver CacioppoJody Oliver Cacioppo

It’s a long way from raising cows on the Ft. Hall Indian Reservation outside Pocatello to a job as a registered nurse in Boise, but for Jody Cacioppo, the journey was made easier through scholarships.

Cacioppo received a Laura Moore Cunningham Scholarship all four years, from fall 2002 until her graduation in 2006, and also a John F. Nagel Foundation Nursing Scholarship. These awards made possible what would otherwise have been simply a dream.

“Without the scholarships, I would never have gone to college,” Cacioppo says. “I knew growing up that I would have to support my way through college. So my sister and I worked very hard to get scholarships. There was no way I would be able to work enough to go to college without this support.”

Now a nurse on the cardiac floor at St. Luke’s Regional Medical Center, she loves her job. “I take care of people at an absolutely horrible time of their life. As I take care of them, I find out something about them and realize they are really amazing.”

And the best part? “Hopefully, I’m giving something back.”

The additional levels of funding are for endowed chairs and endowed professorships. Endowing professorships allows us to attract national and international leaders in teaching and research to our programs. This infusion of expertise creates a synergy for faculty, students and the community as new opportunities and solutions to challenges are explored. Faculty holding endowed professorships expose students, faculty colleagues and the community to prominent national leaders and enhance research and collaborative opportunities within the College of Health Sciences, Boise State University and the community, state and region.

Research Faculty Endowments

Endowed professorships for faculty who focus on conducting research enable departments to successfully attract scientists and clinicians who excel in applied interdisciplinary health sciences research. These faculty members are partially supported by state appropriated money (for any teaching duties) and have the majority of their salaries funded by money generated from external grants and contracts. Endowing these positions in the college will allow our programs to become more competitive for external grants and, in concert, will generate increased research opportunities of importance to our state, nation and the world.

College-level Faculty Research Grants

As Boise State matures and faculty roles change, the need for discretionary dollars to promote and support faculty research is taking on increased importance. These grants equip faculty with the seed money needed to hone research skills, conduct pilot projects, and engage students in research activities.

Places

Laboratory Equipment

Funding for laboratory equipment is essential in order to maintain state-of-the-art experiences for students and faculty. Laboratories are used for clinical instruction and research and greatly expand the College of Health Sciences’ capacity to serve students and the community. The increased emphasis on simulation as a clinical teaching method adds to the urgent need for new equipment. Programs in the college have a long history of partnering with the community to maximize the use of instructional resources and technology in the provision of continuing education opportunities for professionals. Enhanced laboratory equipment and facilities will leverage even more opportunities for community partnerships.

In order to adequately educate our students, the college also has several long-term equipment needs. New digital radiographic, MRI, and sonography equipment is a necessity. Ventilators and programmable lungs are also high on the list as is environmental monitoring equipment.

Health Sciences Building

In spring 2008, construction began on a new building partially funded with a lead gift from the Kissler Family Foundation and Norco, Inc. This building will provide new and greatly expanded facilities for both the Department of Nursing in the College of Health Sciences and the university’s health, wellness and counseling services. Increased student demand and community need for other health programs have impacted the College of Health Sciences’ academic departments of Community and Environmental Health, Radiologic Sciences, Respiratory Care and our research centers and institutes focused on aging, environmental and occupational health and safety, health policy, addiction studies, and regional alcohol and drug awareness resource. Each of these entities is experiencing continued expansion.

Health Sciences BuildingThere is a need for a second health sciences building to house these programs. Campus space is available adjacent to the soon-to-be-completed nursing and university health facility. A second building would, for the first time at Boise State University, allow for co-location of all the health sciences disciplines and research centers. The proximity of academic and research programs, in concert with the nearby student health center, would provide advantages to faculty and students alike in that the co-mingling of disciplines facilitates the exploration of collaborative research and teaching that might not be evident if programs remain at a physical distance from one another.

The proposed college building would contain instructional facilities including medium and high occupancy classrooms, seminar rooms, distance learning classrooms, and laboratories to house imaging technology (MRI, CT, sonography, digital), ventilators, and environmental monitoring equipment as well as offices, storage space, and computer labs for research.

Taking Care of Business

In anticipation of a pandemic such as bird flu occurring in Idaho, Boise State University researchers and the Central District Health Department teamed up to create a tool to help organizations prepare for high absenteeism.

The tool, in the form of a board game, allows companies to quickly estimate the potential impact of an influenza pandemic on their ability to continue business operations, including critical health and safety services. Organizations can visually identify critical operational and staffing vulnerabilities in the event that 20 percent, 30 percent or 40 percent of their employees are absent due to a pandemic. Once these vulnerabilities are identified, organizations can institute appropriate strategies to help avoid problems.

Because influenza is an “equal opportunity” disease, a roll of the dice is used to “wipe out” employees responsible for various key organizational functions, allowing management to analyze where job reassignments could help strengthen vulnerable areas.

Already used by several local organizations, the game is the brainchild of professors Uwe Reischl, health sciences, Sandy Gough, business, and Vidya Nandikolla, engineering.

Programs

Research Centers and Institutes

The College of Health Sciences houses several centers and institutes that exist to provide an internally coordinated location in which university and community scholars can join forces to conduct applied interdisciplinary health-related research. These centers and institutes serve as a conduit from the university to the community. In addition, they create a synergy by bringing together scholars and clinicians from a multitude of disciplines to work on issues of importance to the state, region and nation. Faculty and staff members serving in the centers conduct research from an unbiased perspective and offer a set of defined deliverables that are of utility to agencies and policymakers. These centers and institutes, which have a positive impact on the community and state, are funded through grant money. Endowed support would greatly increase their stability and sustainability as well as facilitate the recruitment of national leaders in the fields represented by the centers.

Campaign Summary

People

Student Scholarships: $10,000
A named scholarship can be endowed with a minimum gift of $10,000. The goal is to distribute up to $1 million in scholarship assistance annually to 400 deserving students.

Graduate Assistantships: $500,000
A graduate assistantship endowment of $500,000 will provide support for one graduate assistant.

Health Professions Residential College Student Housing Stipend: $4,500 per student, per year.

Travel Scholarships for Student Research Presentations at Conferences: $35,000-$50,000 per year.

Travel Scholarships for Health Science Students to Engage in International Exchanges: $25,000-$40,000 every other year.

Professorships and Endowed Professorships: $500,000-$3 million
This level allows an individual or organization to donate $500,000 to augment existing faculty salary lines, thus attracting more experienced and recognized faculty into available positions. A contribution of $1.5 million funds a half-time endowed professorship and $3 million provides for a fully funded endowed professorship. In both cases, these positions can be named by the donor.

Research Faculty Endowments: $1.5 million -$3 million
A contribution of $1.5 million funds a half-time endowed research professorship and $3 million provides for a fully funded endowed research professorship. Donor naming opportunities are available in each instance.

College-level Faculty Research Grants: $75,000-$100,000 per year or $1.5 million endowed with naming opportunities.

Places

Laboratory Equipment: $10,000-$350,000 depending upon the item.

Health Sciences Building: Scope to be determined.

Programs

Endowed Research Centers and Institutes: $5 million
Provides a naming opportunity for a center:

Ways To Give

There are many ways to show your support for the Destination Distinction campaign and Boise State University. Choose the one that fits your situation and where to designate your gift. The Boise State University Advancement staff will work with you to ensure that your gift meets your goals and financial needs while also benefiting the University.

How to Give by Check or Cash

The most traditional and common way in which to support the institution is with a gift of cash. Please make your personal check, cashier’s check or money order payable to Boise State University Foundation, and mail it, along with a short letter stating the purpose of your gift, to the following address:

Boise State University Foundation
2225 W. University Drive
Boise, ID 83706
(208) 426-3276

How to Give by Credit Card

The easiest and most convenient way to make a contribution is by credit card. A donation can by made by phone at (208) 426-3276 or toll free at 1-800-341-6150. An online giving form is fast, safe and secure. The university accepts Visa and MasterCard.

How to Transfer Securities

There may be significant tax advantages from contributing appreciated securities transferred to the university as a charitable gift. The value of your gift depends upon the market price of these assets when they are given. If you have held securities for more than one year, you may find that your gift will provide a twofold tax benefit, creating an income-tax deduction as well as helping avoid the capital-gains tax upon sale. These gifts require special planning and consultation with your professional financial adviser and the Boise State University Advancement staff. Call (208) 426-3276 or toll free at 1-800-341-6150 to make a gift of appreciated securities, stocks and bonds.

How to Make In-Kind Gifts

Boise State accepts gifts of tangible personal property that address a specific need and comply with the mission and policies of the university. These in-kind gifts include real estate and other types of personal property such as artwork and antiquities. Because of the unique circumstances surrounding these gifts, call (208) 426-3276 or toll free at 1-800-341-6150 for further information or to make an in-kind gift.

How to Check for Matching Gifts

An easy way to double or even triple your contribution to Boise State is to find out if your employer has a matching gift program. Such programs typically match all or a percentage of employee contributions to charitable organizations, making the employer a partner in employees’ personal philanthropy. Simply obtain a matching gift form from your employer’s personnel office, fill it out, and provide it to Boise State with your contribution.

How to Make a Planned Gift

You can leave a lasting legacy for Boise State through a will, living trust or retirement plan. The process is very simple and your gift benefits the university for generations to come. With careful planning, it is possible to reduce or eliminate income taxes (including capital gain) and transfer taxes (including gift, estate, inheritance and generation-skipping). You can enjoy these tax savings while turning appreciated assets into an income for yourself and others. Call (208) 426-3276 or toll free at 1-800-341-6150 to discuss planned giving.

Who to Talk to About a Potential Gift

Contact Dean Jim Girvan to arrange a meeting so that we can share our vision for the College of Health Sciences. Please call (208) 426-4116.