A reality based independent journal of observation & analysis, serving the Flathead Valley & Montana since 2006. © James Conner.
Something is rotten in Missoula: perhaps the community, perhaps the university, perhaps both. Enrollment at UMT is shrinking rapidly, while enrollment at Montana State University in Bozeman is growing. As displayed in this graph, it’s close to a zero-sum relationship:
The immediate impacts are financial squeezes on UMT, which needs to make cuts totaling $12 million, and Missoula, and painful cutbacks in the humanities at UMT. The longer term impact may be a permanent reduction in the size and reputation of UMT as the state of Montana embraces educational objectives that emphasize training for the professions at the expense of the liberal arts.
A long string of athletic scandals at UMT hasn’t helped. Nor have allegations that a rape culture exists on campus and in the community. Add to that constant reports of crime, public drunkenness, and homelessness, in Missoula. Parents and students alike may be concluding that Bozeman is a much safer place to pursue a college degree.
Some believe the head of UMT’s president, Royce Engstrom, must roll. That may become necessary, but the university’s problems won’t be solved by making Engstrom a scapegoat. Although he’s surely made some mistakes, replacing him won’t change overnight the factors that generated the exodus of students to Bozeman. In fact, a new president might make matters worse. Instead of reaching for the chopping block and broadaxe, the regents, who may not have clean hands in this mess, should reach for a short leash.
I do think that part of the long term solution must be a radical de-emphasis on athletics, which receives millions in subsidies.
I also think the humanities — and here I speak as a liberal arts graduate, who started in the sciences and studied in the south and midwest — must be revamped to provide liberal arts major with more skills in the collection and analysis of quantitative data. But it would be a grave mistake to diminish the importance of mastering writing, languages, history, literature, philosophy, music, and the fine and graphic arts. There’s an old saying that remains true: “I became a soldier so that my son could become an engineer, and that his son could become an artist.” Universities that churn out technocrats with no soul, with no sense of history, do not discharge their responsibilities to civilization.
