Higher ed town meeting helps frame issues in tough times

Montana State University saw a sneak preview Wednesday of the
upcoming battles in the 2003 Legislature over the state budget
and its $250 million deficit.

By GAIL SCHONTZLER Chronicle Staff Writer

Friendly lawmakers described higher education as the fuel needed
to rev up the state’s economic engine, while critics said the
University System still has plenty of extra spending to trim.

"I think there is room for cuts," said Rep. John Witt, R-Carter, a
rancher and chairman of the Joint Appropriations-Finance
Subcommittee on Education. "I think there is still a lot of fat."

Raising income taxes isn’t the answer to the deficit, Witt said. "In
northern Montana with five years of drought, my people have not
had any income."

On the other side was Rep. John Wanzenried, a Missoula
Democrat, who said an ideology has developed in the Legislature
that "somehow education is bad."

Lawmakers shouldn’t look at education as a cost, he said, but as
an investment in the future.

The exchange came near the end of a day-long "town hall"
meeting called by MSU President Geoff Gamble. More than 120
people attended, including MSU campus leaders from Billings, Great
Falls and Havre, business leaders and a few key lawmakers.

Witt had some of the harshest criticisms of university officials and
said he was disappointed because he felt targeted by lobbying at
the town hall meeting.

Even when the Legislature gives higher education more money,
Witt said, administrators always act like their budgets are being
cut because they didn’t get as big an increase as they wanted.

Gamble said later he agreed with Witt that university leaders need
a new approach.

"He heard from some of the campuses, ‘We’re strapped,’" Gamble
said. "My message is … we can’t go there with our hand out,
whining and complaining anymore."

Gamble said he’s asking his colleagues to accept the fact that
Montana, like most states, has had to cut support for state
colleges. In the past decade, state support has shrunk from 76 to
43 percent of the cost of education, while tuition has grown from
24 to 57 percent.

To deal with that reality, Gamble said, the University System must
raise more private donations, build partnerships with businesses
and raise tuition, while beefing up scholarships to help needy
students.

Richard Roehm, Board of Regents chairman, said it’s important that
university leaders not adopt a "siege mentality" during the
legislative session.

"We will work through the fiscal problems," Roehm said, adding,
"We are the best hope for a positive economic outlook in this
state."

Many speakers stressed the economic value of the state’s
universities and colleges. Pat Davison, former regents chairman
and financial advisor with USB PaineWebber in Billings, said the
$850 million-a-year University System is one of the biggest
businesses in the state, a clean industry with high-paying jobs.

The town hall was successful, Gamble said, because it was
"candid" and is opening doors of communication.

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