The Student Union Building (SUB) has had a long, rich history on Boise State’s campus. Serving as the hub of the university, the building has provided a space for students to socialize, eat, study and present their art.
In 1942, the first student union was created on campus, residing in what is now the Communications Building. For years, it functioned as a spot to host dances and club meetings. After a record-breaking year for enrollment in 1965, the demand for an expansion of the Student Union only grew. Just two years later, the current student union location opened in 1967, featuring office spaces, a bowling alley, meeting rooms and previously, a barbershop.
With smaller-scale changes like new food options being added and a huge $30,000,000 remodel in 2009, the SUB has undergone many changes, but a recent one has garnered a lot of attention from students.
The changing of the building’s name.
Following a sponsorship deal between Westmark Credit Union and Boise State University, the building has been renamed the Boise State University Westmark Student Union Building.
The sponsorship will include the installation of a microbranch in the building. According to Stephany Galbreaith, director of media relations, the university will receive $8.5 million from Westmark over ten years as part of the partnership.
“The funds will be used to improve the Student Union Building, enriching the daily experience of students, and to support high-impact student-serving programs and initiatives,” Galbreaith said in a statement to The Arbiter.
Students have mixed reviews.
Brian Dyer, junior and AV technician at the SUB, sees the benefit of improving spaces within the building. While it hasn’t been specified where the funding is going, Dyer hopes the Special Event Center will reap some of the benefits.
“From what I can tell, there’s a bunch of projects in the works, like improving areas like the Special Events Center — but that [they] just haven’t gotten around to yet because we’ve been busy with other things. Or, some tech issues that have been long-standing, that we’ve been trying to get around to at the Student Union Building.”
Lisa Frisbie, who works at the Game Center, echoed Dyer’s call for improvements, saying the space could “use a nice makeover.”
“We’re trying to run the center on some pretty outdated equipment, so it would be nice to have newer equipment that doesn’t break every five seconds,” Frisbie said. “In general, it would be cool for the funding to go to places that directly impact students in a positive way.”
Despite both being employees of the building, neither Dyer nor Frisbie were informed of the name change.
“I am a student employee, and usually information as such is very much a need-to-know basis. But, I found out through social media, which was a little annoying, especially since I am technically an employee of the SUB,” Frisbie shared.
Some students aren’t as optimistic about the partnership.
Senior, Lark Platts, also found out about the name change via social media and said it brought to mind the name changing of the former Gender Equity Center, which quietly shut its doors during winter break in 2024 and now houses the Student Connections and Support Center.
“There used to be people who would hang out there all the time. This year, it’s completely dead. Nobody goes there because they rebranded it and also got rid of a lot of people working there. It’s just kind of depressing. [Boise State] never said anything about it. I don’t really trust the administration at this point,” Platts said.
Galbreaith said it’s anticipated the exterior signage on the building will be updated to reflect the name change by the end of the year.
“I wouldn’t care if they were renaming, say, the Business building, but to take the one building that is actually specifically for students and is literally called the Student Union Building — unions are very much not associated with being too fond of huge [companies]. It kind of feels insulting,” Platts said.
