By Austen Hunzeker
News Editor
Due to state-mandated budget cuts requiring that 3% of funds be reduced, Idaho State University has confirmed 45 university-wide layoffs and various college restructuring projects taking place in the coming months.
ISU began Fiscal Year 2026 with a balanced budget for the first time in nearly a decade. In August 2025, the state issued a FY2026 budget holdback in the sum of $3.1 million for ISU and a FY2027 ongoing budget cut creating an $8.3 million deficit.
“The strategies resulting from ISU’s budget savings process prioritize long-term structural alignment rather than short-term reductions, emphasizing efficiency, clarity and strategic reinvestment,” ISU President Robert Wagner said in response to inquiry from The Bengal.
Wagner recently sent an email to ISU employees confirming the university’s decision to pursue layoffs and college restructuring after much speculation throughout campus and the community last month.
“Our overall intent is to secure the future of Idaho State University,” Wagner said in the email. “We began with a listening phase where we asked for your input through listening sessions and a feedback survey. This process generated a large number of suggestions and opportunities and led to the creation of a Bold Path Forward.Together.”
Five priorities were identified as a result of the listening phase: Structural redesign, strengthening ISU’s academic core, operational efficiency, investing in people and performance and revenue growth and diversification. With these priorities in mind, plans were created and approved to address ISU’s budget needs.
“We are now entering the implementation phase of our budget process,” Wagner said in the email. “To respect our colleagues, the communication timeline is designed to prioritize those most directly affected by the changes.”
The College of Arts and Letters (COAL) and the College of Education are being merged to form a new college: The College of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences (CHESS), which will result in a reorganization of leadership and a projected $1,778,138 in annual savings. As such, a School of the Arts will be created but will not include a dean.
“I hope the merge still allows education majors to feel supported and seen, and that the unique needs of teacher preparation remain a priority,” said December 2025 elementary education graduate Grace Tigue. “While the decision makes sense from a budgetary standpoint, I think its long-term success will really depend on how intentionally the College of Education’s mission and values are preserved within the new structure. Personally, I don’t think it makes sense. I chose Idaho State University specifically for its education program. It was known in the state for being strong in sending teachers out into the work field. I don’t know if that will be true anymore, so it’s saddening.”
Three departments from the College of Science and Engineering (COSE) will be combined with the pharmaceutical sciences program to create the Department of Biomedical Sciences for the Kasiska Division of Health Sciences. With the result of leadership reorganization and positions eliminated, a total budget reduction of $550,008 will occur.
For a total budget reduction of $521,797, the College of Business will acquire two programs from the College of Education: Sport management and human resource development. A new summer course compensation model is also being enacted in the foreseeable future for the college.
The College of Health is being reorganized under a new name yet to be decided, but is currently being considered as the College of Nursing and Rehabilitative Services. This new college will acquire the Sport and Exercise Science program from the College of Education and re-incorporates the Occupational Therapy program with the Physical Therapy and Athletic Training program. The College of Pharmacy will also undergo restructuring and a name change — yet to be finalized, but is currently being referred to as the College of Pharmacy and Allied Health.
Restructuring of the College of Technology (CoT) with a proposed realignment of the emergency services department (currently housed under the Kasiska Division of Health Sciences) under the CoT is occurring as well, which could produce $974,391 in savings.
Additionally, a restructure of the university library with eliminated positions and subscriptions will take place alongside a combination of operational duties at the Graduate School with Student Affairs at the undergraduate level — also resulting in position eliminations.
Consolidations and eliminations for the Academic Affairs central budget will occur at the Bengal Success Center and The Early College Program, with the McNair program and the College Assistance Migrant Program (CAMP) also eliminating positions.
About half of the 45 layoffs are occurring within the academic enterprise of ISU. In recent weeks, university officials including Wagner, Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs Adam Bradford and others have met with specific individuals and programs directly impacted by the upcoming changes. Students from impacted colleges were also reached via email by their respective deans last week.
“Though some substantial changes are upcoming in terms of college structures, there will be no disruptions to degree pathways and all students will continue on their expected trajectory to graduation,” Wagner said in a written statement to The Bengal.
Bradford met with the ISU Faculty Senate at its Feb. 9 meeting to officially address in depth the changes that will be occurring.
“This is the first time that the (academic affairs) plan in its entirety will be presented publicly,” Bradford said at the senate meeting. “I promised that last week I would come around and be sharing individual plans for the colleges, and then…move from those college level plans to this week, presenting this to the full senate for the first time.”
According to Bradford, it was intentional to present the plan individually to the colleges and then the faculty senate prior to releasing the plan to the public.
“We’re not trying to hide anything as an institution,” Bradford said to the senate. “I wanted you to hear it for the first time from me. I want to apologize if you heard about changes secondhand.”
He began his presentation expressing his own frustration with the situation at large.
“The reason for that anger was because abstract plans were starting to become very concrete,” he said. “I could see things emerging and I could actually see where we were going to be eliminating positions…I was beginning to see exactly who was going to be hurt.”
Bradford continued, “But unfortunately we’re in a position where we have to respond as an institution, we really have no choice.”
According to Bradford, Academic Affairs makes up about 50% of ISU’s total budget. His presentation to the senate only included the academic affairs cuts being made, which make up almost exactly 50% of the total budget cuts currently being made at ISU, equalling to $4.3 million.
Bradford shared that Wagner will be releasing the full institutional plan no later than Thursday, Feb. 12. Wagner confirmed this release will take place via a posted video.
Additionally, Sen. James Ruchti will host a town hall meeting on Feb. 21 from 4-6 p.m. at the Salmon River Suite of the Pond Student Union Building at ISU regarding the budget deficits, with an opportunity for attendees to offer public testimony.
To view ISU’s budget information, visit https://www.isu.edu/budget/.
