Logan Ramsey
Associate Editor
It’s seemed to me that over the course of selecting a new president, we in the community have been holding our breath.
Even now after Kevin Satterlee has become president, we’re still waiting to see what kind of job he’ll do and if he’ll be able to follow through with his inspiring speeches and usher the university into “a new day.” Satterlee’s hitting all the right notes, but we’ve still had to wonder if he really can follow through with the change he’s promised ISU.
While I’m still waiting to see what Satterlee offers, he has my confidence after the school announced that all students would no longer have an extra fee for campus Wi-Fi.
I hope this is one improvement among many that Satterlee will implement, because it’s no secret that the university needs it.
As a sophomore, I wasn’t around for much of the Vailas Administration, so I don’t know it personally, but Satterlee even acknowledged the struggles the ISU faculty have faced (without mentioning Vailas by name) when he announced the new wireless policy.
I’ve been hesitant to jump on the Satterlee bandwagon, but it seems to me that out of all of the candidates that were seriously considered for the job, he wanted it the most.
Out of all the final candidates, he visited the university first, and I think that he fought the hardest out of all of them for the position.
Satterlee wasn’t the popular choice for the job. That was Charles ‘Chuck’ Wight, and it’s possible that he could’ve become ISU’s 13th president if Satterlee hadn’t outlasted him.
And after he promised and formed a committee to replace the ‘I’ that once towered above the campus on Red Hill, he’s shown me that he cares about the history of the university.
I can’t find any reasons not to like him. Everything about Satterlee feels like a breath of fresh air, including his attitude and his leadership presence.
From what I’ve heard about Vailas, he didn’t interact with students very often, but Satterlee has started out as the opposite. During the school’s involvement fair, Satterlee left the administration building and walked through the event and met students, and this shows me that he cares more about the community of Idaho State than the previous president did.
However, none of this matters if Satterlee doesn’t follow-through on his promises, because if that’s the case, the school will stay the scandal-ridden place it has been.
Fortunately, I don’t believe that’s the case, because with the new wireless policy, he’s shown me that he can take action.
What Satterlee said during The Bengal’s interview with him was what I had been thinking to myself for some time now, and it was more than refreshing to hear it from the president of the university.
When we asked him why he had decided to implement the new Wi-Fi policy, he said, “Wi-Fi is something that I think students should be able to expect from a research university.” I couldn’t agree more with this, and he continued to talk about how the university is following a new policy, where they want to remove “artificial barriers” in the way of students attending ISU. This shows me that Satterlee isn’t just in touch with what his faculty wants from him, but what the student body wants as well.
And putting his actions aside, the reason why his promises don’t feel empty to me is because he’s never said he could fix the issues plaguing ISU overnight. This would be unrealistic. What he has said is that through us working as a team we can make our university a better place.
While we still may be holding our breath, in the meantime, that feels like an idea I can get behind.
