UM-Helena is direct path to self-betterment

Officials with the University of Montana-Helena have an internal gauge of how the economy is doing. When the economic climate gets worse, the number of students enrolled full-time grows.

With fall enrollment expected to come in at a record 1,600-plus students and some 55 percent of those enrolled full-time, Helena’s two-year college is at its capacity from a faculty standpoint, even if there may be room in either of two recently expanded campuses for more students. "For the programs we offer, for the schedule we offer, we are at capacity," Dean Daniel Bingham told the IR editorial board this week. "Our capacity problem is finding enough money to hire additional faculty."

That 1,600 enrollment figure doesn’t include dual-enrolled students from local high schools who take UM-H courses and earn both high school and college credit, and it doesn’t include students from Montana Tech, Carroll College or other institutions around the state doing some of their coursework on Roberts Street or Airport Road.

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