With the Stars Over Veishea production “Anything Goes” completed and the end of the semester within sight, theater professor Marguerite Bennett Folger is preparing to say farewell to the Iowa State community.

Folger, an alumna and professor at ISU since 1994, is leaving at the end of the semester.

“It’s time to do something else, somewhere else,” said Folger about her leaving ISU. “I love Iowa State, obviously, and it’s been difficult to think about leaving. It’s just that time.”

Folger attended ISU in the late ’70s, receiving a degree in speech communications and physical education with a dance emphasis.

After pursuing a master’s degree in arts at the University of Minnesota, Folger taught at colleges in Illinois and Minnesota.

Folger has worked on many theatrical productions, notably eight Stars Over Veishea productions during the past 20 years. She has been the director and choreographer for the last three productions.

Folger said she definitely will miss the students at ISU.

“Great people come to ISU; I’ve made lots of friends here,” she said. “Iowa State’s been an important part of my life.”

Folger said another of the things she’ll miss most is the cardinals she encounters in the morning when she walks to her office.

“It’s very much an Iowa State thing,” she said.

Several of Folger’s students sung her praises and expressed their disappointment in her leaving.

“She’s wonderful,” said Kent Hartwig, sophomore in political science. “She’s very fun to work with and a hard worker.”

Hartwig said Folger motivated him to become a theater minor and pursue directing.

“I’ve learned a lot from her,” he said. “She’s inspired me to direct and to make my own way for myself.”

Kristy Henry, junior in performing arts, has had Folger as an adviser, professor and director. She called Folger her “mentor.”

“I’m really sad about it,” she said. “It will be weird not having her here for my senior year. She’ll be missed.”

Henry said Folger brought “a lot of professionalism to the stage.”

“She has a good time with her cast; she gets things done and is always in a positive mood,” she said.

Hartwig agreed that Folger will be hard to replace.

“It’s scary to think somebody else will take her place,” he said. “She’ll be truly missed by the people that do musical theater at Iowa State.”