Substantial donation puts permanent home for Gallatin College within reach

Following an $11.25 million donation from the Arthur M. Blank Foundation, Gallatin College now has nearly all of the necessary funding to construct its new facility, which could be completed within the next five years.

Gallatin College MSU is a two-year college that offers students associate degrees and professional certificates. It currently has 703 students enrolled and is primarily housed in Hamilton Hall.

Dean of Gallatin College Stephanie Gray described how the college runs multiple programs in conjunction with MSU. In addition to those degree and certificate programs, the College offers courses for developmental education to raise students up to college-level math and writing ability, dual enrollment programs, two-year Associate of Arts and Science degrees and workforce programs. Their workforce programs boast 25 potential career avenues and are what Gallatin College hopes to grow most from this new building, according to Gray.

Gallatin College has had this building on the horizon for a while. “Roughly 10 years ago, President [Waded] Cruzado and the Dean previous to me, Dean Hietala, added the Gallatin College building onto the Long Range Building Plan request list that is presented to the [Montana] Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education,” said Gray.

Following the state legislature approving the request and granting the project $23.5 million, Gallatin College was required to raise the other half of the cost for their new building. Recently, the Arthur M. Blank Foundation contributed half of that funding. After the last fourth of money is raised, the facility will take around a year to plan and ideally only three to build, according to Gray.

Currently, the new building is estimated to be around 55,000 square feet once completed and will host around eight to 10 lab spaces, said Gray. This is comparable to the Jake Jabs College of Business and Entrepreneurship that is 50,830 square feet, according to the U.S. Green Building Council.

Gray stated the location of the building will be on the southern edge of campus beyond Norm Asbjornson Hall and across from the upcoming computer science building.

According to Gray, in order to run their technical programs, Gallatin College needs lab space that they currently lease. This new building will create on-campus lab facilities that will expand their capacity and save them money. “[Gallatin College spends] over $700,000 a year on the lease cost. And so, if you can imagine being able to invest that back into the students and what they need and faculty too, that would be really great,” Gray said. The number of students Gallatin College can support in lab spaces could triple in the new facility, consequently expanding their capacity to boost the local economy, according to Gray.

While MSU has many academic spaces dedicated to non-trade careers, this new facility has the potential to showcase trade jobs as an important aspect of higher education and the workforce. “Having a building on MSU’s campus really validates the need for those types of trades jobs,” Gray said.

Second-year Gallatin College student Carly Echoff discussed the benefits and potential drawbacks of the new construction. “I think it's a good idea to have a designated building. It allows Gallatin [College] to grow, fit more students and give Gallatin [College] students more opportunities, when they might not be able to afford to go to MSU. Although, the more we build on the MSU campus for Gallatin [College] students, the more separated Gallatin [College] classes can be — making it harder for students,” she said.

Gray said the new building has the potential to achieve more than just providing lab spaces, serving as a permanent academic home for Gallatin College students on the MSU campus. “Our students walk and graduate with MSU students. So, there’s that stereotypical value that I hope will be diminished when there is this academic building on campus that is dedicated to career and technical trades,” Gray said.

To check out more about programs offered through Gallatin College, head to its website at https://gallatin.montana.edu/.