MSU president looking for new strategy for funding

The view from the Ivory Tower was great, but in a time when state funding for higher education is on the decline, Montana State University President Geoffrey Gamble believes he can be more use to the university system sitting behind his desk, analyzing spreadsheets.

By CAROLYNN BRIGHT, IR Staff Writer

"Society has changed its mind about where its money should go," Gamble said Tuesday, explaining that while college degrees are still considered an asset, they are identified as a private good that shouldn’t necessarily be funded through taxpayer dollars.

So he says he’s doing what he can to strike a balance between providing quality education for Montana students and making sure the facilities under his charge are financially viable.

According to Gamble, his tactic with legislators this session has been to ask for as little as possible, never giving up hope he will receive the most — all the while knowing it’s his job to stretch whatever dollars he receives to their limit.

The only means of accomplishing those ends, Gamble said, is to take a more business-like attitude towards funding and managing higher education.

"The tradeoff is, as the state steps away (from funding higher education), tuition goes up," he said.

Currently, the state funds students at public institutions at 43 percent, as compared with the 75 percent it was investing about 20 years ago.

But, Gamble said, that 43 percent isn’t as bad as it sounds when residents consider that other states, such as Vermont, contribute only about 10 percent to their students’ higher education.

The reality of the decrease in funding available for Montana students translates to an inevitable increase in tuition rates.

"Our citizens don’t have the money to go to school," Gamble said. "We have to have some strategy to backfill."

Despite the constraints posed by Montana’s current economic climate, Gamble said he emphasizes to Montana high school students through such programs as MSU for a Day that college is within their reach.

MSU for a Day is a program in which instructors from MSU travel to Montana high schools to expose students to college-level courses — program participants visited Capital and Helena high schools Tuesday.

"We’ll find a way to help them," Gamble said, explaining that numerous funding options are open to potential students, and he is doing his best to increase those options.

Gamble said he will leave no potential source of funding unturned, whether that means bumping up the price of tuition for out-of-state students, or appealing to the community to support Montana students through private donations.

When Gamble accepted his post at MSU a few years ago, he set a personal goal to raise $10 million in private donations to fund scholarships for students who want to attend the college.

Gamble surpassed that goal and upped the ante to $18 million this year — he attributes credit for the success of the program to the generosity of community-minded citizens.

"In a downed economy … they’ve been willing to put money on the table to provide scholarships for Montana kids," he said.

However, looking toward the long term, Gamble said such endeavors must be complemented by fiscal responsibility more commonly associated with the business sector.

He said he has provided incentives to administrators at all the campuses he oversees to come up with plans to improve their facilities with the goal of attracting a larger, broader student base.

Plus, Gamble has instituted a new policy in which he requires a business plan for all new programs or projects outlining fiscal impacts, benefits, and often most importantly, an exit plan.

"Higher education is a big, complex system and it makes mistakes," he said, explaining that some of the state education system’s largest shortcomings in the past were exacerbated by reluctance to abandon plans that weren’t successful.

Gamble said he won’t give up hope that the state’s emphasis on education will shift back toward higher education — and he won’t stop lobbying legislator to make that leap.

"I’ll tell them, ‘Do what you can for us because it’s the best investment in the state,"’ he said.

http://helenair.com/articles/2003/03/26/montana/a09032603_01.txt