With students moving onto campus and classes beginning in days, there’s no mistaking the momentum on campus. That momentum, built on the successes of faculty, staff and students in the last year, was the focus of president Dr. Marlene Tromp’s “State of the University” address on Wednesday at the Morrison Center.
Among those successes was a record-breaking $68 million in research, which Tromp said is strongly tied to both student success and advancing Idaho. Research opportunities provide students with experiences and employable skills, empowering Idaho’s rural communities and advancing the state and region through research and sponsored projects, many of which are interdisciplinary and build connections across campus.
“We are trailblazing those connections in ways that make new things possible. We’re talking with people, thinking in new ways,” said Tromp. “That is pathbreaking. We are making it possible for students to succeed on this campus, no matter what challenges they face.”
Research money wasn’t the only record shattered in the last year. Contributions to the university from alumni, friends and industry partners exceeded $56.5 million, an increase over the previous year’s total of nearly $15 million. Tromp also announced that early estimates show enrollment of first-year Idahoan students could jump 20 percent.
Founded in 1932, Boise State celebrates 90 years of serving students and the community, rising from a junior college to the state’s largest higher education institution with more than 160,000 living alumni, and contributing an estimated $1.9 billion to the state’s economy each year.
“It has been the greatest honor of my life for the last three years to serve as your president,” Tromp said. “Whatever challenges we face, we face them together and we will develop creative and new solutions together.”
A recording of the 2022 State of the University is available on Boise State’s YouTube channel.