News
Regents OK science programs
Despite cost concerns, the state Board of Regents approved hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of new graduate-level science programs Thursday for the flagship campuses of the Montana University System.
The University of Montana and Montana State University-Bozeman will collaborate to offer a new master’s and doctoral degree program in neuroscience. UM also gained approval to offer a doctorate in bio-molecular structure and dynamics as well as another doctoral degree in anthropology, with an emphasis on cultural heritage studies.
By ALLISON FARRELL
Gazette State Bureau
The dean of the School of Pharmacy and Allied Health Sciences at UM said the new programs will help push the University System "to the next level" of science.
"The nation needs more scientists," Dave Forbes said in an interview Thursday morning. "The federal government is putting a lot of money into bio-medical fields."
Regents Mark Semmens of Great Falls said the new push for graduate level research and development is exactly the push the state’s economy needs. The regents have undertaken a self-assigned task to coordinate economic development in Montana through the University System.
"This is a very good, clean industry," Semmens said. "This is exactly the kind of thing the Montana University System can do for the state’s economy."
But the regents expressed concern over the possible diversion of money from undergraduate programs to graduate programs.
"For $7,000, we can produce a nurse," said Regent Richard Roehm of Bozeman. "For quite a bit more, we can produce a doctor of anthropology."
Roehm said the University System should focus on work force development. But Lois Muir, UM’s provost and vice president for academic affairs, said graduate level research and development is another form of economic development that the state should tap.
The vast majority of the funds for the neuroscience and bio-molecular doctoral programs will come from federal sources, UM officials said Thursday. The majority of the funds for the anthropology Ph.D. will come from state and federal grants, Muir said.
Muir did promise to reallocate funds for one graduate student – at an annual cost of $24,000 per student – to each new doctoral program.
The collaborative neuroscience degree, which will allow students to study strokes, depression and spinal cord injuries, among other things, will be offered by both the Missoula and Bozeman campuses. Each campus plans to enroll about 10 students a year and operate on an annual budget of about $300,000. No new faculty will be hired for the program.
The bio-molecular Ph.D. to be offered at UM, where students will analyze the human genome, will cost about $431,000 a year and will enroll 15 students a year. The anthropology doctoral program will cost about $100,000 when fully implemented and will enroll 18 students a year.
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