Lucas Gebhart
Editor-in-Chief
This is an exciting time to join the ISU community because for the 13th time in school history, ISU has a new president. And this one is, hopefully, going to be way better than the last.
Although he wasn’t the popular choice amongst those who were invested in the search (the popular choice, Charles ‘Chuck’ Wight, accepted a job at a university in Maryland before the Idaho State Board of Education made a decision), I do think President Satterlee can do a lot of good for ISU. And all of that hopeful goodness, unfortunately for me, will take shape long after I am gone. But this, hopefully, might not be the case for you, the incoming student.
ISU is no stranger to national headlines, and usually, it’s not for a good reason. In March 2016, the university made its way into the New York Times after a controversial semester regarding Middle Eastern students.
You can’t tell now, but once upon a time not too long ago, Middle Eastern students comprised nearly 10 percent of the student population. According to the New York Times, those students brought in an estimated $40 million to the local economy each year, and each of those students brought in an extra $20,000 in out-of-state tuition to the university.
But now, the campus is much whiter as “Idaho State had not bargained for the cultural clash in this isolated community,” the New York Times article stated. “Even if they were just normal, rowdy college kids, the behavior of the mostly male students stood out in this conservative, predominantly Mormon city. Free from the strict cultural mores of their home countries, some students have faced charges like drunken driving and stalking.”
Last summer, although it didn’t make national headlines, but did catch a lot of statewide attention, a group of football boosters threatened to withhold $80,000 if former President Arthur Vailas and current athletic director Jeff Tingey weren’t removed from their positions. It was later found that the boosters didn’t have the money to withhold because it was in the form of an endowment fund that already belonged to the university. I could write this entire column about the shady and grey areas ISU endured under the Vailas Administration, but that will neither excite you about coming here or be fair to the current Satterlee Administration, which, hopefully, will bring better days to this university.
What the Satterlee Administration brings is an opportunity at a new day. And you, as the first incoming class of this administration, should be excited about that. But, that’s not to say that this administration doesn’t have its work cut out for it.
What Vailas leaves behind is a school that has a fractured relationship between the faculty and university administration, declining enrollment, a struggling athletic program and a Pocatello community that seemingly doesn’t want to be associated with its university. There’s a lot to fix, but that also means there’s a lot of room to grow. I think if you are fortunate to stick around for four years or so, you will begin to see those exciting changes that will make me jealous I wasn’t born four years later.
Hopefully, under Satterlee, we will have more of a college feel to our university. Hopefully, the New York Times will come to Pocatello because of achievements instead of controversies. Hopefully, we can turn our athletic program into one that expects to win instead of one that is used to losing.
One of the things I do like about Satterlee is his openness and his willingness to listen. He comes from a university (Boise State) that over the last decade has burst onto the national scene.
I’m not trying to scare you away from ISU. Not at all. What I’m trying to do is excite you, because, hopefully, good days are ahead.
