It was never inevitable that Idaho State University would become what it is today, President Robert Wagner said Wednesday. Instead, “countless individuals” built the university over 125 years through “resilience, persistence and courage.”
Now, the university is continuing this tradition while “evolving and adapting” to bring “positive change to Idaho,” Wagner said during his annual address on ISU’s Pocatello campus. ISU is “going about (its) business” despite “headwinds” like budget challenges and existential questions about whether college is still worthwhile.
“We are carrying the baton passed on by those who preceded us,” he said. “That is our purpose.”
Wagner’s 40-minute speech — his third annual address as ISU’s president since taking the helm in 2024 — was heavy on school spirit but light on news compared to a similar address from his counterpart in Moscow.
Earlier Wednesday, University of Idaho President C. Scott Green announced that he’s stepping down, setting the stage for another presidential search in 2027 after the Idaho State Board of Education selected a new leader for Boise State University this summer.
Wagner, meanwhile, focused on ISU’s history and the resourceful people who advocated for its evolution. It has grown from a vocational school, founded in 1901 with a few dozen students, to a nearly 14,000-student university.
Nodding to history, Wagner highlighted pharmacy students in the 1920s who lacked equipment and supplies, so they sent thousands of letters to drug manufacturers and chemical companies seeking donations. He also pointed to ISU’s Early Learning Center, where students can get childcare support while they pursue degrees. Students agreed to raise their fees to fund the center — roughly the cost of a large pizza each semester.
Today, ISU has 5,000 alumni from its nursing program, and it’s building a second nuclear test reactor on campus in Pocatello. ISU alumni and researchers are training astronauts at NASA who will walk on the moon, Wagner said, and they’re coming up with innovations like “Sweetcrete,” a type of concrete made from a byproduct of sugar beet processing.
“What would those early students from that little technical school at the base of Red Hill say if they saw us now … what we have done with their legacy?” Wagner said. “We have taken little, but we have returned decades and decades of impact.”
Wagner’s spirited address comes after a challenging year at ISU and across Idaho’s higher education institutions.
Colleges and universities bore the brunt of statewide budget cuts enacted by lawmakers and Gov. Brad Little earlier this year, leading to across-the-board tuition hikes, including a 4.7% increase at ISU.
In February, ISU officials announced plans to cut 44 positions and consolidate several colleges and programs. A staff survey last academic year found that employees were feeling “under appreciated, less job satisfaction and disconnected to ISU’s mission.”
Wagner also noted broader questions about whether higher education continues to be worthwhile and whether universities are still “preparing people for meaningful work.”
A Gallup poll last year found that Americans’ views on the importance of higher education hit a new low: 35% of survey respondents said a college education is “very important,” compared with 75% in 2010.
Wagner said people are asking “fair questions” about the value of college. But “the history of this institution provides the answers,” and ISU’s “impact will continue to bring positive change to Idaho.”
“This is our time to become even more indispensable to the state we serve,” he said. “Our time to put Bengals at the center of America’s energy needs, and in the hospitals, the classrooms, the businesses, the laboratories, shops, studios and communities that will shape Idaho’s future.”
Click here to watch the full speech.
