On May 10, 2025, Dr. Marlene Tromp had the bittersweet task of saying congratulations and farewell to thousands of Boise State graduates as they picked up their degrees. A bit more than a year earlier, she would have been surprised if someone told her that during the same occasion, she'd be saying farewell to Boise State.
But, she’ll soon be departing as she prepares to become the 28th president of the University of Vermont.
It turns out that UVM officials were fairly persistent in trying to attract Tromp to their campus. She recalled that it was “a really aggressive outreach” in the spring of 2024. In fact, she was the sole finalist to be interviewed on campus.
The recruitment to UVM, she said, was not unlike how she was recruited to Boise State, Tromp called both instances a bit of “divine intervention.”
“They reached out again and again and again,” she said. “They invited me to the Vermont campus, and a week later I had a job offer. And it moved so quickly that it was almost head-spinning.”
As Boise State ramped up its search for her replacement, Tromp agreed to one final in-person conversation with Morning Edition host George Prentice before she left. During the wide-ranging, and ultimately emotional conversation, they spoke about multiple topics including:
- outreach to individuals who might not otherwise have had an opportunity for higher education
- the challenge for university presidents to navigate uncertain cultural or political environments.
- how land grant universities transformed America.
- graduating with significant or minimal debt.
- the significant differences between BSU and UVM (and why they call it UVM and not UV).
The conversation also included Tromp’s thoughts on some of the university's most significant challenges of the last few years, particularly in late 2024 when Boise State chose to forfeit a women’s volleyball game against San Jose State due in large part because the opposing team included a trans athlete and, separately, Boise State's decision to close its Gender Equity Center.
And when Prentice asked if those particular decisions had anything to do with Tromp’s decision to consider the job at UVM, she responded, “I think what I’ve learned from that experience is something that I can help an institution that has not yet had to grapple with … and I can really help people think as a community through those complex issues. So, I think it has taught me a great deal. But there is no question that this has been the hardest job I’ve ever had in my life. And every time someone has suffered because of a decision that our students, faculty, staff, or administration has made, that has caused me pain. There is no question.”
Listen to the full conversation here.
Find reporter George Prentice @georgepren
Copyright 2025 Boise State Public Radio
