Scott Green to step down as University of Idaho president

This story was originally posted on IdahoEdNews.org on Sept. 9, 2026.

University of Idaho President C. Scott Green will retire on June 30.

Green made the announcement during the president’s “state of the university” address Wednesday — an annual event that took a sudden and emotional turn.

Addressing the campus community at his alma mater, Green recounted success stories from his seven-year tenure, including advances in enrollment, research and athletics. He also reflected on the challenges of leading the U of I through a global pandemic and in the aftermath of the November 2022 off-campus murders of four students.

“We truly were at our best when the Vandal family and the Moscow community needed us,” said Green, fighting back tears.

“We love you, Scott,” one member of the audience said aloud, before the room rose in a standing ovation.

Green’s departure marks a transition at the state’s land-grant university, and sets the stage for another high-profile job search. The State Board of Education — which doubles as the U of I’s Board of Regents — recently filled the president’s vacancy at Boise State University, after a tumultuous and largely closed-door 16-month search.

University president: ‘We accomplished more than most thought possible’

A former U of I student body president, Green returned to Moscow in July of 2019, leaving New York City and a top management position with Hogan Lovells, an international law firm.

Green said he came back, in part, to bring some stability to the president’s office — a revolving door at the helm of a university established before Idaho’s statehood itself. During Wednesday’s speech, Green noted that his tenure marks the longest of any U of I president since Richard Gibb.

Gibb was president while Green was a U of I undergrad.

Green graduated in 1984.

Green also discussed several milestones from his presidency.

By spring 2020, the U of I had covered $40 million in operating losses, a shortfall inherited by Green. Enrollment rebounded from a pandemic-era lull (last fall, the U of I welcomed its second-largest freshman class in history.) In 2025, the U of I received top-tier R1 research status from the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, the first Idaho university to reach this threshold. Later that year, the U of I wrapped up a $500 million capital campaign.

“We accomplished more than most thought possible,” Green said.

On Wednesday, Green also relitigated one of his high-profile initiatives, a failed bid to purchase the University of Phoenix, a massive for-profit online university with a national footprint and tarnished reputation.

The State Board gave the Phoenix deal the green light in 2023, after a series of closed-door discussions. The 2024 Legislature balked at the bid — with some lawmakers grumbling that they had been cut out of the process. The U of I and Phoenix broke off negotiations in June 2025.

Green said the purchase — with an overall price tag of $685 million — would have landed Idaho an asset that has since gone on the public market for $1.1 billion.

“History has already shown (this) was one of the greatest financial opportunities the state of Idaho will ever see,” Green said Wednesday.