Missoula campus feedback could shape University of Montana presidential hire

Missoula, Mont. — The University of Montana's search for a new president moved into a key phase after one finalist came to campus for public events and meetings with the university community.

The search began earlier this year after former President Seth Bodnar stepped down to run as an independent candidate for Senate. University officials fast-tracked the process instead of using a traditional months-long search.

That process brought Dr. Jeremiah Shinn to Missoula. The current Boise State interim president met with students, faculty and community members while sharing his vision for the university's future.

“There’s there are a few challenges that I think exist in higher education right now. And certainly here I think, I think it’s important to restore public trust. I want the people of Montana to know that this is their university and that they can be proud of this university for its contributions to their community. I want to be sure that that higher education remains affordable and accessible for our students. And I want to be sure that the University of Montana is financially viable into the future,” said UM presidential finalist Jeremiah Shinn.

University and state leaders said they were weighing that vision alongside public feedback as the search continued on a compressed timeline.

“That capturing the momentum where the university was at, given a fairly abrupt departure from President Bodnar, was a good thing that we didn’t want to take a year to sort of rethink, go through a traditional search. So we moved quite quickly. I mean, we we were still accepting applications when we started interviewing candidates. This whole thing is moved. And this is a long way of saying, it’s still a bit of work in progress,” said Commissioner Clayton Christian.

Christian said feedback from the campus and the community would help shape his recommendation before it goes to the Board of Regents for a final decision.

University officials said community input would play a key role in who ultimately leads UM Finalist Candidate | University of Montana. If the process stays on its current timeline, a hire could come within weeks.