A Place of Welcome

Ground breaking on alumni center draws closer

Idaho State University will soon have a new space to welcome alumni, friends, students and visitors.

Bids for construction of a new, 22,000 square-foot ISU Alumni Center are expected to open this summer. The center will be located on the corner of North 15th Avenue and Memorial Drive in Pocatello,

Idaho State Alumni Director Ryan Sargent sees the new center as a gathering place for alumni, friends, visitors and students. Features will include a large open courtyard, a large event hall, meeting rooms and an atrium. The center will also be home to administrative offices for Alumni Relations and the ISU Foundation.

For more than 40 years, the Alumni Association has welcomed guests at the Magnusen House, a historic single-family home on Seventh Avenue near campus.  Sargent says the new facility will allow the University to better showcase the open, welcoming feeling people get at Idaho State University.

“The Alumni Center will serve as the gateway to campus and welcome the world to ISU,” Sargent said. “The building’s architectural design communicates warmth, hospitality and, really, ISU pride.”

Donors have raised more than 95 % of the funding needed to begin construction, Sargent said. Through Dec. 31, all donations to the center are being matched by an anonymous donor, up to $200,000. For a donation of $1,000, which can be paid over time, alumni and friends can  etch their name in history on a paver that will be located outside the new center.

“This new facility will be a gathering place for not only our alumni, but for our friends, visitors and students,” Sargent said. “While we are calling it the Alumni and Visitors Center, it will really serve as our university center where we will bring Bengals together, both current and past.”

For more information on how you can help make the Alumni Center a reality, visit isu.edu/alumnicenter.

Emily Frandsen