Lobbying brings $8 million to UM

There was a time when Judy Fredenberg would tell folks in Washington, D.C., she was with the University of Montana, and they’d ask her how things in Bozeman were.

That’s because Montana State University, home to the state’s agricultural college, has been lobbying Congress for research funding for years. Long considered a liberal arts school, UM hadn’t focused on lobbying the federal government for research grants.

“I think we didn’t play the game for a long time,” said Fredenberg, with the office of the vice president for research.

But since the mid-90s, UM has begun stepping up its lobbying efforts in Washington. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, a group that tracks money in Washington, UM invested some $336,000 into lobbying for competitive research grants. That’s up from just $29,000 in 1998.

Dan Dwyer, UM’s vice president for research and development, gave UM president George Dennison credit for the shift in focus from liberal arts to research.

“President Dennison set the direction of the university that we were no longer going to be exclusively a liberal arts university,” Dwyer said.

Story by Sean Breslin
Montana Kaimin

Full Story: http://www.montanakaimin.com/index.php/news/news_article/lobbying_brings_8_million_to_um/

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