The Montana Board of Regents voted on Thursday, Sept. 23, to institute a plan labeled the “Success Agenda” for Montana colleges and universities statewide.
This new program include goals such as raising the percentage of students who graduate at MSU, depending on their progress, could lose or gain millions in state funding.
The Board of Regents handles funding distributions for all state-funded colleges and universities. The governor appoints Regents to their office and the Senate confirms his choices. Also he, as well as the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the Commissioner of Higher Education serves as ex-officio members of the board.
The program, their headline effort, proposes a new budget format dependant upon the universities’ ability to reach a series of goals established by the regents.
The regents plan to implement a marketing plan to raise awareness and support for higher education as well as use data more critically to make sound, informed decisions. According to the student representative to the Board, Teresa Borenpohl, a similar study from the University of Montana described the school’s positive impact on the state. The Board’s version would encompass each of the state’s school’s effects on Montana and its citizens.
“Every single piece of [the plan] was completely on target,” Borenpohl said.
The plan also calls for more demanding admission requirements to both four-year institutions as well as more clearly defined roles for each of the state’s post-secondary schooling options. Under the new agenda, two-year, four-year and professional schools will each work under a specific description of their individual functions.
The agenda aims to increase the accessibility of two-year universities and other non-conventional forms of professional education. It also calls for an increase in graduation rates at the schools.
According to Borenpohl, this approach to distributing state funds allows the regents to examine a broader view of what they want the university system to fulfill in the state and then apply the funds that they have more strategically, rather than allowing the schools to fight over it.
“It really forces you to look at the money,” Borenpohl said.
The regents also discussed the quality of staff employed by Montana institutions and made a concentrated effort to maintain similar standards with future hires.
Although, with Montana State University’s current financial situation and in light of the potential budget cuts under the plan, the school could be forced to terminate up to 30 jobs in the future. To avoid laying off 30 people simultaneously, the university decided to leave some open jobs unfilled and split responsibilities among several staff members to cover the gaps.
