Nineteen of Idaho’s student leaders representing ten student government organizations have one message for the Idaho Legislature –- protect the Idaho LAUNCH program.
In response to discussions at the Capitol sparking uncertainty about the future of the Idaho LAUNCH program, student government leaders issued a joint statement urging the Idaho Legislature to preserve LAUNCH without reduction, restriction or repeal.
At Boise State, roughly 2,000 students rely on the program for tuition assistance.
“You can’t expect someone to do something or see something if you haven’t told them,” Isaac Celedon, student body president of Boise State University, said. “Until you voice that concern, even if they are still doing it, at least you can say they have heard my voice or the voices I represent.”
The joint statement, released in February, was first developed in early November. In the process of drafting the statement, each participating university provided insight as to what the program looks like on their campus.
“We took a lot of different steps in order to get this project done, whether that be collecting information from our campuses on how many students utilize LAUNCH to coordinate with other schools to get their information and signatures,” Seyi Arogundade, student body president of the University of Idaho, said. “We really tried to come together for the students.”
During the 2024-25 academic year, 767 students at the University of Idaho received the LAUNCH scholarship.
Bryant Sitts, the student body vice president of the University of Idaho, is one of those students.
“I definitely would not be where I am today as the student body vice president, or even living on my own successfully without the program,” Sitts said.
“It’s a very powerful thing when we are able to gather institutions from around the state to come together and advocate for our student bodies,” Arogundade added. “We as students are a part of the constituents as well. When decisions are made and we don’t have a seat at the table, it is disheartening.”
At Lewis-Clark State College, roughly 7% of the student body receives the LAUNCH scholarship, translating to about 300 students.
“We have a lot of students in in-demand fields at LC State — lots of teacher education, lots of nursing, lots of CTE students,” Rayne Martinez, student body president of Lewis-Clark State college said, noting those are the three primary fields students attending the college pursue.
Celedon said the statement has received responses from the Joint Finance-Appropriations Committee, with most of them expressing general support for Idaho LAUNCH. In response, Celedon urges them to continue the program without any further reductions.
“I really hope that this leaves an impression in everybody’s mind that we, as student leaders, really care for the students that we represent. I hope that this sends a message to the legislature that shows more people will be affected by minimizing the LAUNCH grant than they think might be affected by it, especially small schools like LC State,” Martinez said. “It would be really unfortunate for people to not be able to attend college simply because they don’t have the funding to do so.”
