President Dennison looks to the future in address

UM President George Dennison set the promotion of graduate education and research as a goal for the coming biennium at the University.

Delivering his State of the University address recently, Dennison said the state Board of Regents supports the effort because of the impact it has been shown to have on economic vitality.

He noted that recent forecasts have predicted a robust economy in Montana for the next four years, “affording an environment at once supportive, because of the economic vitality, but also needful of the kind of nourishment and impetus that graduate education and research typically provide.”

He said UM will work to increase graduate enrollments as early as fall semester 2008, with an approach to facilitate recruitment to major programs of study by 2009.

Dennison introduced new administrators at the event, including Royce Engstrom, provost and vice president for academic affairs; Mehrdad Kia, associate provost for international programs; Roberta Evans, dean of the School of Education; Peggy Kuhr, dean of the School of Journalism; Frank Laurence, interim director of the Hamilton Higher Education Center; Jim Darcy, director of Budgets for Academic Affairs; Betsy Hawkins, director of Human Resource Services; and Krista Frederickson, director of annual giving for the UM Foundation.

Other highlights were:

• UM established a balanced budget to begin the biennium, partly because of increased enrollment in the 2007 Summer Session; revenues exceeded the target by more than $500,000.

• An increase in state funding passed by the 2007 Montana Legislature will result in two years of zero tuition increases, but state increases to UM’s general fund only replace what the University would have received from resident tuition increases, so the additional funding does not result in a “windfall” to the University.

• The Montana Partnering for Affordable College Tuition Program was implemented to attract more qualified but needy Montana students. Sixty-six resident students enrolled during the past year.

• The UM Foundation transferred more than $4 million to the University for endowments in 2007.

• Between 1992 and 2003, research funding at UM increased by 230 percent and 89 percent more scientific articles by UM faculty were published in Science magazine, the fifth highest increase in the country.

• UM contracted with an external consultant over the summer to help the University develop a program to increase its retention rate for entering freshmen, which now stands at about 70 percent.