ISU President Vailas Announces Final Year

In a move that caught few by surprise, Idaho State University President Arthur Vailas announced on Tuesday he will be stepping-down, effective June 17, 2018.

The announcement came in front of the State Board of Education, where most had known this was going to happen when Vailas said he first told the board a couple of years ago.

“I already talked to the board about this years ago, and right now it’s just a matter of family and we want to change where we want to be in life,” Vailas said.

During the announcement, he said he and his wife, Dr. Laura Vailas, had been talking about retiring for years.

“We haven’t seen our children for a long time,” he added. “First thing we are going to do is see our family and spend some time there while helping-out with the grandchildren.”

This announcement comes at a time when the University has been under some heat, surrounding controversy after a group of former ISU football players and alumni have asked Vailas and ISU Athletic Director Jeff Tingey to step down or face the withdrawal of nearly $80,000 in donations.

However, Vailas said this is just a matter of bad timing, saying he had planned on this announcement in front of the board for months.

At the end of this year, that would mark 12 years Vailas has served as ISU’s twelfth President. He said, normally, university presidents average a five-year tenure before moving-on.

Before Vailas took over at ISU, he led the way at several other universities across the country such as: UCLA, the University of Houston, Wisconsin, Iowa, and New Hampshire.

When asked what some of his biggest challenges were during his time servings as President, he noted there weren’t enough funds when he first took over.

“How do you build a medical-health program with little money? How do you fix a campus with $400 million in deferred maintenance costs with little money?” Vailas added.

He nodded toward some of his accomplishments during these past 11 years so far.

“We’ve come a long way with facilities, grants, research, new centers, new strategies, and the new medical school…ISU has been a great ride.”

The State Board of Education has already started searching for a new replacement which will take place under a search committee made-up of: board members, a search committee from out of state, and faculty and staff from ISU. That final decision where ISU’s thirteenth president will be chosen and announced is expected to come sometime in March.