BOISE, Idaho (CBS 2) — Boise State's new president opens up about challenges facing the university, and about push back from state GOP lawmakers on Boise State's diversity initiatives.

President Marlene Tromp was in office just a few weeks when she received a letter signed by 28 republican state lawmakers urging her to reject Boise State's programs to promote campus diversity. They wrote it was essentially a waste of money and Boise State should focus on academic achievement.

Tromp was appointed the president of Boise State University in April. The first woman ever to hold the position.

Wednesday the former executive vice chancellor at the University of California-Santa Cruz sat down with CBS 2's Scott Logan to answer some questions.

The diversity programs pre-dated your arrival, so have you met with lawmakers to reach some sort of middle ground?

"Representative [Barbara] Ehardt was a university women's basketball coach, she cares deeply about students, so I think there are opportunities to find common ground and talk about ways in which we serve the needs of the students at the university."

"Right now I'm still learning from people but these programs have been around since doctor Kustra was president. They are not new. They're typical, nationally. What I want to understand is what are the concerns that people have at bottom, which made them feel like those programs were somehow a threat."

"One of the things that Rep. Ehardt told me was that she fears if we segregate people in any way it makes them feel it's the only place they want to be. It makes them not care about being part of the whole."

"But I think actually when we support students, whatever their points of affiliation, we help them feel apart of the whole, they get to feel like Boise State students; where they are valued and respected, and get to feel like Broncos."

"I'm still trying to learn what their concerns are. I have met with a number of the people but not all of them."

It's important to point out the legislature's democrats wrote a letter in support of Boise State's diversity programs.

There are many in the Idaho legislature that do not know what it is like to be a part of the minority, does that play a role?

"I think we need to understand the needs of our rural students, our first-generation students, of our veteran students, as well as the students got identified in that letter."

What's your reaction to what critics say is the republican-controlled legislature's failure to back up support for higher education with funding?

"Nationally what has happened is there has been a decline in state legislators that support public education. What that has meant is that that cost burden has borne more and more by students and families and their supporters. I think we have a lot of responsibilities. We have to work really hard to make sure that we are delivering that education as efficiently as possible."

ncG1vNJzZmihlJa1sLrEsKpnm5%2BifK%2Bx1qxmpaeTlrlwrtKuZKmqlai2pbHNrWStqp%2BivW6%2BxKynqKaUqHq1u4ylmLClkaCys7%2BMnaCvnaKotrXFjKWcrayVpw%3D%3D