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The University of Montana is still in the early stages of transformation under the leadership of university president Seth Bodnar.

Bodnar, who started at the university in January, stopped by The Daily Inter Lake on April 19 following the release of a preliminary strategic report that proposes cutting about 51 faculty positions over three years and outlines consolidating departments/majors and student retention. He also spoke to student enrollment and renewed interests in recruitment.

The efforts come out of a two-year planning process in working to address a $10 million budget deficit due to continued declining enrollment.

A draft of the “University of Montana Strategy for Distinction” was released earlier this month.

“I think people recognize the university continually needs to adapt,” Bodnar said, later noting, “Our university is much more tuition dependent than it used to be, so when we have declines or increases in enrollment, that has a much larger impact on the resources available.”

He said the plan proposals are to “better allocate our resources to meet our student needs.”

“That means a small number of programs will be discontinued. The majority of programs we will keep as is, but we will be reducing a number of faculty in various areas,” Bodnar said, noting that suggested changes are based on data such as enrollment in various majors and departments.

“Change is hard. That change has an impact, and I take very seriously that impact on our employees, but I also take very seriously the commitment our students have made in spending tuition and coming and getting an education at the university,” Bodnar said.

Current students will be able to complete degrees according to the course catalogs from the year they enrolled at the university.

“We’ll make adjustments over time, but we also hold sacrosanct the commitment we’ve made to current students,” he said.

A part of the preliminary plan outlines four main components, or “key strategies for distinction.” The first area, referred to as the “Montana Core,” focuses on the relevance of a liberal arts education across disciplines, keeping in mind that students may change careers over time, or go into careers that don’t currently exist, but may in the coming decade.

“What we’re trying to do is say let’s take a hard look at our ‘gen ed’ curriculum and say how do we adjust that as necessary to provide all of our students that foundational, interdisciplinary knowledge to help them in their major regardless of their discipline — to adapt and succeed, and to grow over the course of a career,” Bodnar said.

In regard to how different disciplines will work together, the drafted plan lists six “Communities of Excellence”: artistic expression and communication; science and technology; business and entrepreneurship; environment and sustainability; health and human development; and justice, policy and public service.

“The most complex problems today exist at the intersection of disciplines,” he said, giving an example of the issue of water scarcity where the focus of study may require knowledge in the areas of biology, hydrology, forestry and economics.

In looking at enrollment and retention the plan described a “holistic focus on student support and success,” Bodnar said, adding that the university recognizes that students enroll in different stages of life and with multiple backgrounds.

“Core to our mission is providing opportunity and social mobility — helping students persist and succeed to graduation,” he said, later noting, “The reason I wanted to do this job was I look at the importance of higher ed today. I would argue it’s more important today than it’s ever been for our country. You know, our founders said that an educated citizenry is the bulwark of the republic and places like the University of Montana are the places that are providing that educated citizenry. When you have that as a mission, thinking about the students holistically in the classroom and out of the classroom is very important [in] thinking about ways to help students overcome challenges in getting to graduation.”

Bodnar said various groups including the university’s Faculty Senate are reviewing the preliminary report to provide feedback to finalize plans in the coming weeks.

An improve recruitment strategy is also a goal of Bodnar.

“We absolutely recognize we need to do a more effective job of communicating with students, with parents, the options at the University of Montana, and in doing so, not just stuffing mailboxes full of postcards, but reaching out to students in the most effective way, and again, making them aware of great opportunities,” he said.

In revitalizing recruitment efforts, an area taken on by Bodnar’s wife Chelsea in an unofficial capacity, the university has come under scrutiny in the type of student data released to third parties.

Bodnar said nothing inappropriate would be released, and referred to a statement by the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education that asserted no personal data tied to specific students has been shared.

“You look at overall trend data and population data to understand the type of student that would be attracted to and would succeed at the University of Montana, and that will better get your message to the right audiences to recruit students. We’re very cautious with data,” he said.

Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.