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[frozen]

Does anyone have any insights on Idaho State or the surrounding area?

[vandoesborgh]

Go to the video store and rent Napoleon Dynamite.  Filmed in Pocatello.  Can't say anything about Idaho State, never been there. 

Pocatello itself, like other SE Idaho towns is a sleepy farm town.  On the plus side, it is not too far from the Tetons and Yellowstone. If you are like so many on these boards who have problems with Mormons, you may not want to move there.  SE Idaho is where most of the Mormons live (I-15 Corridor up to around Idaho Falls).

[tintern]

I know a couple of people at ISU who speak highly of Pocatello.

[nerdasaurus]

NPR's show Day to Day is doing a special about Pocatello today. See if you can stream it.

[netprof]

Can anyone say more about teaching load and research expectations here?

[polly_mer]

You're going to teach.  You should do some research.

Seriously?  Go do some of your own research in the department that interests you.  How much have people published recently?  Do they have tons of publications or just a few?  Have they published recently at all? 

Go look up the Carnegie classifications.  Into what category does ISU fall?  Combine that information with what you just learned from looking at the departmental information.  What have you learned about research expectations?


Go look at a course catalog in the areas where you will teach.  Count how many times you see the same names.  That's a typical teaching load.  Compare the names with the largest number of classes with the research productivity.  This will probably tell you whether people are teacher/scholars, scholar/teachers, TEACHER/scholars, or SCHOLAR/teachers.

[fedscholar]

My sense of Idaho State is that it is number two behind U of I, by a pretty good margin. However, it is far away in a large state, so it has its own niche. I would say it is probably SCHOLAR/teacher in expectations (Carnegie lists it as RU/H or ~ R2). The area around there is  some of the finest country in the lower 48. With the Sawtooth and Bitterroot Mtns. to the north, Yellowstone/Tetons to the east, and Utah's red rock country to the south. I agree that it will be a politically conservative place, with a strong Mormon influence, and a lot of sagebrush in the near view. As is the case with many of the Intermountain States, pay is modest ($70-80k for Full Prof.), but COL is also (best places lists 89 vs. 100 for all American cities). It does not seem to suffer from the Durango/Bozeman/Park City effect of extreme gentrification and high home costs relative to wages. Pretty down to earth. A great place to ride horses, watch thunderstorms, and get yourself a blue heeler dog for company.

Could be a great place or the end of the earth, depending upon your preferences.

[netprof]

Thank you! polly_mer, I did do what you mention, but in this case I wasn't able to learn as much as I would have liked. Some departments do not post CVs, and the teaching picture is complicated by the department of interest going through staffing transitions. So I've been able to learn some useful bits of information, but I am trying to get a better sense of the big picture, such as the SCHOLAR/teacher idea and these other helpful thoughts.

[homelessscientist]

The faculty senate and administration there aren't getting along.  The AAUP report from last spring is probably worth reading:

http://www.aaup.org/NR/rdonlyres/7079C993-5072-4DFA-B936-0D7AB44A2D78/0/IdahoStReport.pdf

[byuisock]

I teach at a school not too far up the road from ISU. For what it's worth, ISU used to have the reputation of being unfriendly towards Mormons. That's probably changed. Also, I wouldn't describe Pocatello as a sleepy farm town. Take a drive up the road a bit if you want to see one of those. Or dozens of them.

[polly_mer]

I used to live in Idaho Falls and drive to Pocatello every weekend.  I also lived in rural Wisconsin for twenty years.

By those standards, Pocatello is not a sleepy little farm town, but, no, it's not Salt Lake City or any other metropolitan area, either.  It's big enough that outsiders (aka those who were not born there) can find social groups and be happy in a big enough city (the sidewalks don't roll up at 6 pm).  Also, Salt Lake is a beautiful drive away.  If Salt Lake doesn't have what you need, then you likely will only be happy in Manhattan or LA and should live closer to those places.  Pocatello and Idaho Falls will not have what you want.

The school itself isn't great based on my observations.  It's good enough for those who want to be teachers who do some research, but I would characterize it as a TEACHER/scholar place for my fields, unlike Fedscholar.