Northwest Montana News

Waded Cruzado, president of Montana State University, called out the Board of Regents at their March meeting for policies that have consistently favored University of Montana at the expense of MSU. Cruzado said that the board was losing sight of its mission to support Montana's students by continuing to change its policies based on the needs of UM. 

In the last decade, the Regents, a board appointed to govern the Montana University System, have voted to funnel more income to UM when enrollment was climbing, at one point ordering MSU to pay $9 million to UM because they had more students. But as enrollment at UM began to taper and fall, the Regents moved away from that mode of funding. 

“Ten years ago, when I arrived at Montana State University, the situation was very different,” Cruzado told the board, per the Missoulian. “Because of the fact that we were down in enrollment based on just one year, the board decided to re-base the budget, and we lost a considerable amount of money. That’s the way we used to welcome presidents in the past.” 

University of Montana president Seth Bodnar responded with this statement: “I have the utmost respect for President Cruzado and we’re working through this, but I also think I would be remiss on behalf of some of  the other campuses to not acknowledge that a pure resident (enrollment) number is part, an important part, of the picture, but also mission  differentiation and what campuses are charged to do, is also an  important part of the picture."

UM is a liberal arts and sciences campus while MSU has focused on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. 

In 2009, UM officials began advocating for basing the amount of state funding each campus received on the in-state student enrollment. In November 2009, then-president of UM George Dennison said because of the school's growing enrollment, they needed more funding or would be faced with overcrowded classrooms and a worse graduation rate. 

Finally, in 2011, the board voted to change the amount of funding based on the number of in-state residents and ordered MSU to pay $9 million over the course of three years because UM had more students.

The year the Regents changed the funding policy to benefit UM's booming enrollment was the highest point its enrollment would reach. Beginning in 2015, UM went through measures to align its budget with its shrinking revenue. 

When the tables were turned and MSU had more in-state student enrollment, state funding to UM actually rose instead of fell. Over the last five years, state funding per in-state student grew twice as fast at UM as it did at MSU. Now MSU is experiencing the same troubles UM saw in 2009, facing overcrowded classrooms and stretched facilities. 

More than half of MSU's current students are from out-of-state. 

In early March the board voted to end its policy of attributing funds based on the number of Montanans each campus enrolls. To try to make up for changes in funding, most of the money allocated during the last legislative session for infrastructure improvements and inflationary costs is going to MSU.