Last week University of Montana President Seth Bodnar and Associate Vice-Provost for two-year education and workforce development Tom Gallagher visited the Bitterroot College primarily to recognize the importance of the Bitterroot College to the University’s mission which he said could be reduced to two words: “inclusive prosperity.” They came to participate in a roundtable discussion arranged by Angela McLean, Interim Director of the college, that included organizations, teachers, students and businesses working with the college either in its two-year degree program or in its workforce development programs.
“Our job in its essence is to help every single member of our community, which includes Missoula, but also 100% includes the Bitterroot, and all of Montana, to help every individual achieve their unique potential,” said Bodnar. He praised McLean’s accomplishments in her first six months on the job, saying, “I don’t think we could have found a better more qualified leader. Someone who understands education, understands the state, who understands what it means to build a team and what it means to build a community. It’s an important time for Bitterroot College and I am very excited about what you have done and the trajectory that this institution is on.”
McLean said that the President’s visit “signifies to all of us that the University of Montana and its presence right here in Hamilton is going to be a continuing thing.”
“I will say to the University of Montana, we are one institution. We are them and they are us. But we join together today to recognize that the University of Montana Bitterroot stands uniquely ready to continue the already existing strong programs in continuing education and work force training and also to recognize that UM Bitterroot is situated to build on its portfolio by adding University of Montana and Missoula College programs to grow our two-year offerings as well as providing a path to four-year and masters programs to residents right here in Ravalli County,” she said.
“When I first came here, we knew we had to get the message out that this college was still open for business and that was my first Op Ed… and we began the “Start here. Stay here” campaign and established a presence in every single high school.” In fact, they pursued every avenue available, even distributing thousands of flyers to local businesses.
“The efforts paid off,” said McLean. She noted that this spring’s enrollment numbers were a 20% increase over last fall’s.
“That is due to a lot of good messaging, hard work, blood and sweat from our faculty, and our students, who created a podcast about our faculty and staff,” said McLean. “Just good hard work telling the good story about the wrap-around services that we provide here and about how you can start here and stay here.”
“We live in a world that is changing rapidly,” said Bodnar. “Employer demands are changing rapidly. The skills that people need are changing rapidly. We have an aging workforce and a major talent crunch across the state. We have to adapt in terms of how we deliver education.
“The good news is that we now know there are ways to get a degree from Helena College without being in Helena, right? There are ways to get a degree from Montana Tech without being in Butte. There are ways to get a degree from the University of Montana without being in Missoula. And there are ways to get all that right here in the Bitterroot. That’s why I’m so excited about the ‘Start here! Stay here!’ motto. It’s exactly right.”
He said that the university’s goal “is for this campus to meet the unique needs of every student in the Bitterroot Valley.”
“We should see this as a portal,” he said. “It’s a portal to access everything, not just the University of Montana system which includes not only Missoula College and Montana Tech, and Montana Western, but the whole U.S. Why should a learner have to leave the Bitterroot to access the offerings of the University of Montana educational system?”
A couple of students at the roundtable expressed their appreciation of having access to a college right in town.
Lydia Lee, LPN, was one of four students in the LPN program at the college, part of a cohort of 16 students through Helena. She said two of the Bitterroot students graduated at the top of the class.
“We didn’t do that on our own,” said Lee. “It was made possible by the staff here and faculty members who would help us study, give us their time and go out of their way to help us reach those goals. And people like Meri [Administrative Associate Manager Meri Telin] who proctored our exams and answered ten million questions and helped communicate with Helena for us.”
“For many of us in the Bitterroot College who did the LPN program,” she said, “we are all moms. We all work. We all live here. It is not feasible for us to go anywhere else to do this program. This was just such a huge opportunity.”
She said she didn’t believe that it was possible but, when she went in to talk to the staff about it, they convinced her that she could.
“They helped me figure out how I could manage this and they helped me every step of the way,” said Lee.
She said having a local option for college had made a big impact not just on her life but on her kids and her husband. “My whole future is better.”
Christine Rodriguez was born and raised in Hamilton. She is also a mom and said, “It made it really nice to be able to come here to some place locally and not have to commute back and forth all the time to Missoula. It wouldn’t have been possible for me at the time that I started here.” She said that she didn’t know what to expect when she arrived, “but found the staff and the teachers here really care about their students. They want you to succeed.” Rodriguez graduated last month.
Bodnar said it was important to realize that the college was not here just to help students in high school get a head start or to participate in workforce development.
“You have lives, you have families, you have roots here in this valley,” said Bodnar. “You can’t just uproot for two years and go get a two-year degree. But to go purely online with no person to talk to, to help you through that? That doesn’t work for a lot of people. So why are those the only two options? Either abandon my family or work only by computer? There’s got to be a better way. That’s what the Bitterroot College is. A wrap-around service. A model of what the future of UM looks like.”
He said there was a long way to go, and it would take partnerships, and part of that was creating a University of Montana Bitterroot College Advisory Council to participate in the development of a plan to meet workforce needs.
One business that they have been working closely with on workforce development plans lately was represented by Dr. Marshall Bloom, Director of Administration at Rocky Mountain Laboratory.
Bloom said, “It’s been a terrific pleasure brainstorming with you and Terry Burkhouse and other members of your staff over the last six months about ways that we might be able to work together on projects and possibly bring some unique offerings to the Bitterroot College.”
Toby Wilson, who works with Bitterroot Health as Workforce Health Coordinator, said, “We’ve had a few meetings where we have looked at a few new avenues, arrangements, operations to try and give people opportunities. He said in his former position at Job Service, federal funds were used to send a lot of students to Bitterroot College for CDL, CNA and phlebotomy, “so I knew the value of the program and the value of the training that was here and available.”
Curtis Bunton, CDL instructor at the college for five years, said he had run over 100 students through the program with a 96% success rate. He said it was “because I slow down and take the time to get them through, where most schools just shove them through too fast. I have over-the-road driving just short of three million miles, so I bring a lot of my experience into my class and that is what they say after they get out of this class.”
Hamilton School District Superintendent Tom Korst said the district looked at its facilities and thought they were underutilized and worked with UM to bring Bitterroot College here. He said the school district made close to $500,000 worth of renovations and hopes to make more.
“It’s been a great partnership for lots of reasons,” said Korst. “We are always seeking out dual credit opportunities and workforce training programs and the college has always been super supportive of that. We are one of the biggest leaders in dual enrollment in the state.”
Paul Gladen, Director at Accelerate Montana UM’s economic development program as well as the workforce training program at the Missoula College, said they have some significant funding right now for the state’s workforce training programs and are now bringing those programs to the Bitterroot. Bodnar said the collaboration between Accelerate Montana and the Bitterroot College makes it “the economic development engine of this region.” He said that while many businesses are in desperate need of workers, you can’t just call out for a workforce, you have to build one.
“The world changes quickly and the idea that you are going to go to school ‘til you are 18 or 22 and then go get a job for 30 years and then get your watch and your pension upon retirement,” said Bodnar. “Those days only existed for a small sliver of the population, they don’t exist anymore. So, one of the things we are trying to do across the entire U of M system is to better serve learners at all stages of their lives and careers.”
McLean thanked everyone for being a part of the Bitterroot College story.
“I think the next chapter of the Bitterroot College story is about to be written and I think it’s going to be a very good one,” she said.