POCATELLO — Idaho State University President Kevin Satterlee during a speech on Friday called on the community to get vaccinated to help new and returning students at his school have a “non-pandemic” college experience.

Satterlee said his university hopes to bring a sense of normalcy back to its campuses through student events and a focus on academics. Though, given the current surge of COVID-19 cases in Idaho, it’s been difficult to do that.

New and returning students, he said, are participating in student events more than ever before and in larger numbers, showing they’re eager to experience college free of the enduring threat of the coronavirus.

”Our students want the non-pandemic college experience,” Satterlee said. “But the only way we are going to be able to deliver that different future for our students and help those students get that experience, get out there and do the things that they want ... is if everyone in our society gets the vaccine.”

Satterlee spoke on Friday to about 100 people at a luncheon hosted by the Pocatello-Chubbuck Chamber of Commerce at the Clarion Inn in Pocatello.

He vowed during his speech to use his platform to promote the COVID-19 vaccine and urge people to get vaccinated.

“Vaccines are the key to our future,” he said. “So every public speaking opportunity I have until we get to the right vaccination level, I’m going to say all of that because that is what will move our society forward.”

The university currently has a mask mandate in place on its campuses and at the beginning of this school year launched a cash incentive program for students to get vaccinated. Students who have gotten vaccinated can show their vaccination card at the ISU cashier’s office and get $100 in cash from pandemic relief funds given to the university by the federal government.

Satterlee also talked on Friday about other initiatives at ISU, such as the multi-million-dollar renovation project for Holt Arena that’s being fully funded by Idaho Central Credit Union, as well as his administration’s efforts to raise funds for scholarships to help reduce the number of students who are deterred from entering or staying in school because of financial barriers to higher education.

“Two years from right now, we are going to have raised $20 million (in scholarship funds) for students,” he said.

Satterlee said he challenged all of his faculty and staff to run a 5K with him as a fundraising event for the scholarship campaign. There’s a $25 entry fee for each participant and he said for every staff member who beats him to the finish line in the 5K race, he’ll put an extra $10 in the fund.

When Lookout Credit Union heard about the initiative, he said, the company presented Satterlee with a $10,000 check for the cause.

“They’re investing in the future of our students,” Satterlee said of Lookout Credit Union. “That money will go into a permanent scholarship fund, which means that money is going to pay dividends for Idaho State University students. Those are the kind of changes, those are the investments we’re making in the future of Idaho State University.”

Satterlee said his hope for the university is that it continues to grow and that its legacy will be one of helping generations of students reach their fullest potential.