Cruzado: MUS has some success in Legislature, hopes for more in 2015

The president of Montana State University said she was pleased about some of the university funding that came out of this legislative session, although she hopes some last-minute cuts can be made up in the next session.

“I was pleased with the funding for the Montana University System,” said President Waded Cruzado, who attended the Northern Agricultural Research Center southwest of Havre on Wednesday. “I think that the Legislature did a wonderful job in adding some precious resources.

“Toward the end, I understand that the budget needed to be balanced, and we lost some important (funding) for the research centers and for labs and for extension,” she said. “I am confident, though, that next time around we will be able to make a better case.”

She said the loss of funds in the last minute should not cause major problems, and no programs or positions will be cut.

“We are in a healthy situation. We have been fiscally prudent,” she said.

Cruzado said the highlight of the success was in the Legislature approving funding that allowed MUS to freeze tuition, which she said helps keep admissions affordable for more Montana students.

She also said Montana State University-Northern has taken the lead ahead of a new focus in the state university system — performance-based funding.

The Board of Regents of Higher Education and the commissioner of higher education have shown interest in basing some university funding on performance. This session, the Legislature tied the allocation of a small amount in future budgets — $7.5 million — to performance including enrolling and retaining students and graduation rates.

Cruzado said she believes the performance-based funding will increase the accountability of the university campuses, and let Montana taxpayers see results for where they are spending “their hard-earned dollars.”

MSU Provost Martha Potvin agreed. If a campus can show success, it can receive additional funding.

“If you want more, you do more,” she said.

Northern, which announced in June the results of an intensive nine-month review of every program at the university, has taken the lead in that and the rest of the state has noticed, Cruzado said.

Northern Chancellor Jim Limbaugh in June released the plans that resulted from the review, including cutting or placing in moratorium 25 programs, maintaining 25 at current levels, reducing or integrating four others and growing 19 programs. The university also will investigate creating three new programs.

Cruzado said she is pleased to see the university acting proactively, and said that, with performance-based funding, other campuses will have to take similar steps to try to receive allocations of those funds.

While it is natural for people to feel threatened or upset about proposed changes, Northern followed a well-designed, complicated process through multiple steps and with input from a large number of people to conduct the review, she said.

She and Potvin said they support Limbaugh’s decision to cut secondary education while focusing on growing other programs including elementary education, nursing, diesel and automotive and farm mechanic technology programs, and the new criminal justice program.

Potvin said Northern focused on the right issues for the right reasons. She said that, with low enrollment, a university has difficulty providing a good secondary education teaching program, including lack of classmates for the students and increased difficulty retaining or recruiting faculty, and justifying the programs themselves.

“I respect the decision that they came to, and they followed their process, and it was done for a good reason,” she said.

Rather than trying to consolidate and revamp programs, “We would rather have strong programs and have Northern find it’s niche and do really well,” Potvin added.

Cruzado said she has great admiration for Northern’s faculty and staff going through a long, complicated process to find what programs are weak, what are strong, and where resources should be allocated and what new programs should be offered to the community.

“The lights are on,” she said.