I left Ricks College before it became BYU-I and moved out of Idaho. When I was at Ricks they were having a very hard time finding enough priesthood to lead the many student wards. They were drawing from miles and miles outside the county to rope in leadership. You were worthy if you could grow a beard.

Now that Ricks has gone from a junior college to a four-year school and there are more students and older students, how are they handling the need for bishops and stake presidents? And if membership is dropping in Idaho, is it causing problems for the new BYU-I wards and/or branches?

Just curious.

It's been about 3 years since I attended, but this was definitely the case while I was there. Having a bishop from Idaho Falls was in no way uncommon.

what about faculty and (GASP) staff?
aren't they mostly males/PH-TR kinda guys?

It doesn't make sense, but neither do a lot of things at the Rexburg Compound.

Based on my experience with BYUI there are plenty of keyed-up faculty and staff that would see a position as bishop or Stake Pres as a way to move up the ladder. I have seen work related emails from BYUI staff and in the signature page and it includes stuff like:

Nephi Christensen
BYUI faculty coordination
26th Ward Executive Secretary

BYUI is very bureaucratic, self-righteous institution, and its my guess they have no problem finding people to be bishops.