History of Idaho State University

Pocatello, 20 square miles nestled along the old Oregon Trail on the Snake River Plain, became a city in 1882. But regional history began in 1810, when Andrew Henry led trappers into the area. In 1834 Fort Hall, some eight miles to the north, was designated the most important post on the Oregon Trail. In the 1860s Pocatello's Portneuf Valley location was the gateway to the West for stage and freight lines connecting America's coastlines, and in 1876 a railroad line from Utah reached Pocatello, connecting Portland, Omaha, and Salt Lake City. And today, Pocatello and ISU stand at the juncture of Interstate highways 15, North-South, and 86/84, West.

According to the 1900 census Idaho's population was 161,772, with 4,046 from Pocatello. In 1901, at the instigation of young, energetic, and newly elected State Sen. and Pocatello Mayor Theodore F. Turner, Idaho State University was founded as the Academy of Idaho. Proposed as a people's school with college prep and industrial courses, the institution was open to all elements of society and was, in effect, a school at a crossroads for a cross section of the population. The academy, founded by Idaho Senate Bill 53,was contingent on private land donations for its site. After much infighting in the community and among real estate owners, a four-block, 8-1/2 acre tract at ISU's present lower campus location was selected and construction began.

Four faculty members were hired and one of them, John W. Faris, was named principal. The first two campus structures were Main Building, a three-story stone edifice later named Swanson Hall that opened in 1902, and a 25-room men’s dormitory, later named Faris Hall that opened for occupancy in 1903. In-state tuition was free, out-of-state tuition cost $5 per term, and room and board was $16 per month. Opening exercises on Sept. 22, 1902, were attended by 40 students, but enrollment soon swelled to 70 students, 55 of whom were from Pocatello.

The first women’s dormitory opened in 1906. It was named Turner Hall after Sen. Turner, the school's life-long friend who, in 1909, started the academy’s agriculture department with the gift of a 160-acre farm. Faris resigned in 1907 to enter the banking business in Buhl and was replaced by Miles F. Reed. By 1910 enrollment was up to 295 and the academy expanded by purchasing three city blocks for $6,300. Reed was so flushed by the growth that his 1911 biennial report said that since Pocatello was the state's population center, it was the logical location for the state’s greatest educational institution. This was the first of many steps that eventually propelled ISU into a four-year school. In 1915, the academy was promoted to Idaho Technical Institute.

1918 was a dark year in school history. A Spanish influenze epidemic closed school for two months. During that time Reed died of a heart attack. He was briefly replaced by Norman B. Adkinson. With World War I in progress, 200 students enlisted in the military and 300 others enrolled in ITI's Student Army Training Corps. In 1920, Charles R. Frazier became president, the pharmacy school opened with four students, and returned military pushed total enrollment over 1,000 to force new dormitory construction. ISU made its first move into true intercollegiate athletics by hiring its first physical education and athletic director, Ralph H. Hutchinson, a Princeton alum who adopted Princeton's Bengal tiger as ISU's athletic mascot.

By 1925, southeastern Idahoans again felt the state population center should have equal educational opportunities. It was said that while the state was configured like a giraffe, the neck need not receive all the nourishment. Three Bannock Country representatives introduced a bill to make ITI a four-year school. The bill was defeated in the state legislature by three votes and in the senate, by one vote. The legislation was not sanctioned by the State Board of Education, which dismissed Frazier for his connection with it and named Jesse E. Retherford, an advocate of the junior college system, ITI president. Students were defiant and adopted a "Four Year Tech" slogan.

Under the 1927 House Bill 160  compromise, the school was given the name University of Idaho-Southern Branch and was placed under the University of Idaho's wing, although it had its own budget and financial status. Martin F. Angell was named executive dean in 1927 and served a three-year term. The much-beloved John R. Dyer succeeded him in 1929 and during his administration, fraternities and service and honor societies were organized and the forestry program begun.

Dyer presided at the start of the Great Depression. Non-residents were required to live in dorms, and the frosh per capita expense of $300 per year was the lowest at any western college. Extracurricular activities were still strong, with a pair of one-loss football seasons and a 1933 debate against Pacific University broadcast on KSEI Radio. Dyer was mourned after his 1933 death in an auto accident, and Dr. Ernest J. Baldwin, director of UISB's Division of Letters and Science, replaced him for two years, the first of his two terms as acting executive dean.

The Depression brought hard times, short budgets, crowded classrooms, and renewed efforts by locals who fought for four-year status. John R. Nichols was named executive dean in 1934, but remained in the battle's background. The mid-1930s brought WPA construction, including the Spud Bowl and a variety of trade and technology structures. Athletics in the mid-’30s brought in longtime ISU coaches and administrators Milton "Dubby" Holt and I.J. "Babe" Caccia.

In 1937, a carpentry class built the University Club apartments, but housing in general was inadequate, and the dean of women said, "I feel that we should not encourage students to come here if we can't provide them with a decent place to live." In 1939 the Student Union Building, now the Administration Building, and Graveley Hall dorm were built. Mrs. Lottie M. Graveley was the first and only female member of the State Board of Education and its former president.

More heavy lobbying for four-year status continued until the start of World War II. UISB students and faculty, some 2,200 men and 96 women served the military in a variety of capacities, and 61 of them died. Nichols was commissioned in the Navy, and again Baldwin became acting dean. War's end brought widespread world changes, but none in the UI/UISB master/servant relationship. UISB enrollment skyrocketed. In the fall of 1946 1,809 students enrolled, 1,036 of them veterans under the G.I. Bill. This precipitated a scramble to add dormitory and off-campus housing and classroom space.

Nichols returned briefly but left to be president at New Mexico A&M. He was replaced, first on an interim basis then permanently, by Dr. Carl W. McIntosh, UISB speech professor and drama coach, who at age 32 became one of the youngest U.S. college presidents. During McIntosh's interim tenure, longtime "four-year supporter" Bannock County Sen. Nellie Cline Steenson and others introduced legislation that, bulwarked by the Peabody Report on public education in Idaho, resulted in UISB becoming Idaho State College and attaining four-year status. Both state houses unanimously passed Senate Bill 70 to end the 34-year campaign, and on March 3, 1947, Gov. C.A. Robins, with Theodore F. Turner present, signed the bill with the same pen Gov. Frank W. Hunt used on March 11, 1901, to create the Academy of Idaho.

ISC, whose enrollment topped 2,000 in 1948, started with three schools - liberal arts, pharmacy, and industrial training - followed by business. Academic milestones quickly followed, including the first accreditation by the Northwest Association of Secondary and Higher Education, the A-1 rating given pharmacy by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, and industrial training’s recognition as one of the nation's top trade schools. Large-scale expansion included construction of the heating plant, Liberal Arts Building, gymnasium, and library.

In 1950, ISC sponsored its first internally-funded research project, and in 1951 the Reserve Officers Training Corps was instituted. Under McIntosh, an introductory speech class was made mandatory for all freshmen, a status that remains today. Athletics was very strong. In 1953 and 1957, ISC won the NCAA boxing championship, and ISC football, basketball, and track and field dominated the Rocky Mountain Conference.

In 1957, faculty salaries ranged from $3,500 for instructors to $7,200 for professors, and more single student housing was available, although married student housing didn't become available until 1977. The State Board of Education approved a college of education in 1958, and in 1959, the student-funded student union building opened, and McIntosh resigned to become president of Long Beach State College in California. Academic firsts continued,with master’s degrees available in education, English, and physics, pharmacy becoming a five-year program; and establishment of a two-year program in dental hygiene.

In 1960, Dr. Donald E. Walker, dean of students at San Fernando Valley State, became president and the campaign to become a university started, a campaign that moved much more quickly and smoothly than the fight for four years. In 1963 Gov. Robert Smylie signed the university bill with the same pen used by Govs. Hunt and Robins.

ISU grew steadily in its first 60 years, but growth has been even more rapid in the last 40. In 1963, ISU had 3,500 students and four colleges, offered six undergraduate and eight master's degrees and boasted a trade and technical school with 14 major programs. In 2000, ISU has more than 12,500 students, eight colleges and schools, 68 bachelor's, 52 master's, and 11 doctoral degrees, and 44 certificate programs in applied technology.

In 1965, Dr. William E. "Bud" Davis, executive assistant for student affairs at the University of Wyoming, became at age 36 another of ISU's youthful presidents. During his administration he presided over ISU expansion, including much-increased enrollment and the trend toward a non-traditional student body, as well as a campus in the age of student unrest, with sitins, demonstrations, and peace marches.

Davis made an unsuccessful 1972 bid for U.S. Senate and left ISU in 1975 to become president of the University of New Mexico. He was replaced by Western Michigan University vice president Dr. Myron "Barney" Coulter, who arrived as ISU celebrated its Diamond Jubilee. Ten distinguished alumni were honored that year, including Idaho Sen. James McClure, who defeated Davis in 1972, and pianist Roger Williams.

Financial support for ISU shrank nearing the end of the '70's. Faculty and staff positions were lost, mid-year budget cuts were common, and student fees were raised. In protest the Pocatello Chamber of Commerce initiated the "Love ISU Week" fund-raising campaign in 1983. The first campaign raised $75,000 for academic scholarships, in 1999 the amount raised was $275,000.

Physical growth continued through the 1960s and into the '70s with construction of the fine arts, business, education, and physical science buildings, a student health center, student union hypostyle, Garrison and residence halls, life science complex, a new library that at the time was the state’s largest building for education, and the ASISU Minidome, which later underwent a name change to Holt Arena to honor Dubby Holt, who invented it.

After the Houston Astrodome, Holt Arena was the second, multipurpose domed stadium constructed and the first built on a college campus. The building houses ISU football, basketball, and track and field, and has hosted concerts and special events ranging from the Mormon Tabernacle Choir to Van Halen, to two NCAA Division I-AA national championship football games and three NCAA sub-regional basketball tournaments. Holt was also the home of ISU's 1981 NCAA Division I-AA championship football team.

Coulter resigned in 1984, and Dr. Richard L. Bowen, former president of the University of South Dakota and South Dakota Commissioner of Higher Education, became president. Under Bowen, the sound of construction returned to campus, financial support improved, and enrollment nearly doubled. Construction has included the Early Learning Center, the third largest child care facility on a U.S. college campus, a physical sciences addition, and the Idaho Accelerator Center, and major additions were made to the pharmacy, biology, and engineering facilities, and Reed Gymnasium.

Improved state appropriations have led to ISU's increased ability to fund its educational programs. The Accelerator Center, a cooperative project among ISU, the Idaho Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, and the Department of Energy, and the Business and Research Park are just two examples of ISU's increased emphasis on research.

Enrollment now approaches 13,000 students. More than 2,000 students attend ISU's Idaho Falls campus, and hundreds more attend in Boise, Twin Falls, Lewiston, and other cities. Some 500 commuter students ride buses to the Pocatello campus. Students take some 6,000 credit hours via distance learning courses given off campus and on the Internet. All of these indicate how well ISU has adapted to the education of the future as the school moves into the 21st century.