U-System urged to promote image

Some local business leaders and legislators Friday urged the state Board of Regents to put more emphasis on the system’s economic importance in the state and less effort on trying to get increased state aid at a time when the money isn’t there.

Associated Press

"There’s only so much to go around," said Leonard Landa, who owns a Missoula insurance firm. "You can’t talk all day about the University System getting more money. There is no more money."

Higher education leaders have said they realize that and will approach the Legislature with that in mind.

"Going and saying that we need a good deal more than is already in the budget would be an exercise in futility," said University of Montana President George Dennison.

Still, the regents aren’t giving up on a plan to portray the University System as a vital cog in the state’s economic machine.

The regents’ campaign to portray the University System more as an investment than a drain on state money was outlined in March when the size of the projected state budget deficit had yet to become clear.

The plan envisioned more programs to better fit market demands for workers, doing more for rural Montanans, making higher education more accessible, and increasing investment in technology. The possible price tag was $39 million.

But since then, state officials have pegged the deficit at $200 million or more, and Gov. Judy Martz’s budget proposes no increase in state funding for higher education over the next two years.

Commissioner of Higher Education Richard Crofts said he’s hoping to get $4.5 million to offer more financial aid to low-income students but is realistic.

"This year’s budget exercise, frankly, is going to be one where we’re trying to hold on to what we have, (more) than it is going in for a significant increase," he said. "I don’t think any of us see any point in talking, as we did in the last session, about some major increases in funding for the University System."

Unable to expect greater state aid from the 2003 legislative session, the University System will have to rely on itself to cope, Dennison said.

"We’ve got to look within and see how we can continue to make it go," he said.

While that is certain to include higher tuition, Dennison said, any increase must be carefully considered so as avoid driving students away.

"We all have to recognize that there are more and more young people who want access to higher education, and if they don’t get it, they’re condemning themselves to a future that we really don’t want them to have," he said.

Regents said they still want to do a better job of improving the public’s perception of the University System. They used this week’s meeting to offer a helping hand to agriculture and the timber industry, brag about the financial benefit of campus research projects, and advertise the system’s efficiency.

In a news conference Thursday, Chairman Richard Roehm of Bozeman said meetings with representatives of agriculture and wood products businesses earlier in the week were part of that effort.

"The intent is to work together to provide whatever assistance we can so that we all prosper as Montanans," he said. "We have intensified our activity."

The news conference showed that the University System received $104 million in federal research funds last year.

Roehm said the efficiency of the system is demonstrated by its ability to educate 2,000 more students than in 1992, despite having $2 million less in state aid.

Regent John Mercer of Polson said the University System should have little trouble selling itself as having broad shoulders that the state can lean on for economic development.

"We’re an $850 million, ongoing, around-the-clock operation, and we can really get things done," he said.

However, Sen. Vicki Cocchiarella, D-Missoula, said higher education has to do a better job of explaining itself to legislators and citizens.

Higher education’s message to lawmakers has to be more than "We’re good; give us money," she said. "The Board of Regents needs to go out and sell the system. You still have the appearance of the ivory tower and three-piece suits."

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