91ÊÓƵ

Dear Campus Community,

The 69^th Montana Legislature wrapped up its work in Helena last week. I am pleased to share a synopsis of the outcomes that will allow us to improve campus and continue serving all types of students for years to come.

While we are still waiting for the Governor’s final actions on a few bills that impact the 91ÊÓƵ, we can with confidence view this legislative session as a very positive one for UM and the Montana University System (MUS) as a whole. Every session, including this one, presents its own challenges and concerning developments. But of the four legislative sessions I have worked through as UM’s President, this session stands out as our most successful effort to sustain support for public higher education in Montana. This session, your fellow Montanans chose to invest in public higher education, signaling their belief in your work.

The success of this legislative session for the MUS is rooted in four major bills.

• House Bill 2: The legislature increased base funding for the MUS by about $16 million for each year of the biennium. This equates to a 6% increase in funding from last legislative session. Later this month, we will know how the Board of Regents divides that increased funding among the MUS campuses.

In addition to this overall increase in MUS base funding, the legislature also provided significant funding to continue UM’s dual-enrollment partnership with K-12 school districts, extended funding for the Montana 10 program to serve first-generation UM students, and invested over $700,000 for UM to continue critical repatriation work of Native American remains and artifacts.

• House Bill 5: In total, the Montana Legislature invested more than $30 million this session to improve infrastructure on our campus. UM projects included in House Bill 5 include:
  • A major renovation of the Music Building to modernize practice rooms, teaching spaces, improve accessibility, and update critical mechanical and HVAC systems.
  • The construction of a state-of-the-art Student Success Center on the top floor of the Mansfield Library.
  • The establishment of an $11 million fund to modernize classrooms, teaching labs, and other student spaces at the discretion of UM Facility Services leadership.
  • Numerous roof and elevator replacements as well as critical systems upgrades.

In addition to the $30 million provided for the projects above, this legislative session provided UM with a path forward to construct a new teaching and science lab building that will serve as the primary home for the W.A. Franke College of Forestry and Conservation, as well as for other teaching, learning, and research activity. This path includes demolishing the existing Clapp Building and relocating students, faculty, and researchers into the new teaching and lab building in the coming years.

When complete, this new teaching and lab building will have received the most funding the legislature has ever provided the MUS for a single facility, and it will allow UM to further establish ourselves as the region’s top destination for students and researchers in the fields of wildlife biology, forestry, conservation, geosciences, and the environment.

More details about this transition will be communicated in the coming weeks to those who work in the Clapp Building.

• House Bill 13: The legislature has approved employee pay raises for every UM employee for the next two years. All UM employees will receive pay increases on July 1, 2025 and July 1, 2026. The raise will be either $1 an hour or 2.5%, whichever is greater.
• House Bill 10: UM has emerged as Montana’s cybersecurity hub and for the second legislative session in a row, the State of Montana will continue to invest significant funds to bolster UM’s cybersecurity education and training efforts. This session, the legislature provided $3 million to CyberMontana to continue its efforts to education K-12 students, University students, and upskill professionals in the cybersecurity across the state.

In addition to securing the positive impact of these bills, we were able to defeat a series of troublesome proposals that aimed to undermine the independence of the Board of Regents.

Ultimately, this session is defined by two successful points: We secured a level of public investment in UM that hasn’t been seen in recent history and protected the MUS’s autonomy – through the Board of Regents – to make decisions. Both are vital for the MUS and UM’s long-term ability to serve Montanans.

I want to thank Commissioner of Higher Education Clay Christian, Deputy Commissioner of Higher Education Galen Hollenbaugh, UM’s Director of Strategic Communications Dave Kuntz, and the other campus leaders who worked hard to represent and defend UM's and the MUS's interests at the legislative session. 

The work required to have successful legislative sessions begins more than a year before the session takes place. While we are excited about the results of the 69^th Montana Legislature, the critical work needed to ensure the 70^th Montana Legislature is equally as successful begins this summer.

The strengthening partnership between UM, the Montana University System, and our civic leaders is a testament to your hard work and to our shared ethic of building relationships in support of the common good. I hope you have a wonderful final week of the semester, and wish you the very best as summer arrives in western Montana.

Seth