College presidents share issues with legislators

Officials from Flathead Valley Community College and the University of Montana hosted legislators and candidates Friday morning for a wide-ranging discussion of education issues in preparation for the 2013 legislative session.

Representatives Janna Taylor of House District 6 and Keith Regier of House District 5, both Republicans, attended along with Democratic candidates Rodrik Brosten for House District 9, David Fern for Senate District 2 and Brenda Talbot for House District 6.

Jane Karas, president of the community college; UM President Royce Engstrom; members of their staffs; and community college trustees Tom Harding, Mark Holston, Shannon Lund and Tom McElwain also participated in the discussion held at the community college board room.

Engstrom pointed to a new facility for UM’s two-year Missoula College, formerly College of Technology, as a top legislative priority. UM officials sought $30 million for a building in the last session.

“We came very close to getting funding for that but [we’re] not quite there,” Engstrom said.

The UM president said the state’s healthy cash balance provides the option for seeking a cash approach this time or the bonding sought in the last session.

If a bonding approach goes forward, Engstrom added that officials need to focus on the educational project because too many projects were added in the last attempt, raising the price tag to an unacceptable level.

Later in the discussion, Regier brought up Montana’s over $3 billion unfunded liability in its retirement fund as a concern when talking about new buildings and Montana’s healthy cash balance.

In his introductory remarks, Engstrom said the success of students remained the primary focus for educators. He said economists predict that 68 percent of future jobs will require some college credential from two to four years to a graduate degree.

“We’re only educating 40 percent of our young people with some sort of a college education,” he said.

According to Engstrom, UM officials have developed strategies for student success such as making sure high school students receive solid college prep education. Engstrom said coordination with K-12 educators has reduced the number of students needing remedial work in math and English.

The percent of students needing such help at UM has dropped from about 30 percent of incoming students to about 24 percent. Engstrom said the most dramatic improvement has occurred in writing due to hard work at the K-12 level.

“I think that’s an area we can take some pride in,” he said. “Now math is starting to come along as well.”

There was some discussion of a need to raise requirements for English and math from two to four years in high school.

Engstrom pointed to two-year college education as another critical area of concern. He said the regents have worked at bolstering two-year education for the last several years.

“We, as a state, have really under-utilized two-year opportunities and so we have been working systematically to strengthen those programs and raise the visibility of them,” Engstrom said, citing the recent renaming of two-year colleges.

UM operates Missoula College and Bitterroot College in Hamilton. Engstrom said they provide many entry points for students wanting to pursue the trades, a two-year degree or transfer to four-year programs.

In her remarks, Karas said the support from legislators has helped the college achieve its goal of meeting local needs. She noted community conversations where she gathers feedback from the public about needed improvements and new programs desired.

“We are fortunate in some ways because we are not eligible for any of the long-range building money because we have to make a case to our local community if we need any new buildings,” Karas said. “If we can’t make that case then we don’t get the building. That has worked out well for us.”

Karas said 60 percent of the community college’s students pursue transfer programs. She said they transfer to many of Montana’s universities as well as Ivy League institutions, citing the example of an engineering student accepted at Yale with all of his community college credits accepted.

The UM president told the group about Montana Digital Academy through which the university delivers online courses to high schools in small districts with small budgets. Engstrom called it “a tremendous success” with Spanish as the most popular course.

Because the community college accepts all students with a high school diploma or GED, Karas said about 89 percent of recent students needed remedial help in math and 33 percent in English. She said some may have been out of school for years as in the case of displaced workers.

Karas said the college started a math boot camp that allows students to brush up just in their area of weakness instead of committing to a semester class. High school students now take the math placement test as sophomores and juniors to find weak areas before they reach college.

She said the new associate of science nursing program is full and she expects within the next few years to train 80 practical nursing students a year.

Karas told the legislators and others that partnerships with business and industry such as Northwest Healthcare and the Flathead Builders Association have made many of these programs possible.

Summarizing the discussion, Engstrom said it was important to provide a range of educational opportunity in Montana. He said Montana institutions do it at a “very competitive cost.”