Cruzado upbeat in addressing Northern group

Montana State University President Waded Cruzado visited Montana State University-Northern Wednesday to answer questions from the community and university faculty and staff.

Chair of the Montana Board of Regents Paul Tuss of Havre introduced Cruzado.

"We've had a rough couple of weeks here at Northern," Tuss said.

As Cruzado stepped into the packed open public meeting, she began with some encouraging words about the state of the university.

"I think this community has many reasons to be proud," Cruzado said, and spoke of Tuss' and interim Chancellor Greg Kegel's accolades.

Cruzado said when she asked Kegel to serve as interim chancellor, he said yes without hesitation.

"He said yes because he cares passionately about this place," Cruzado said.

She said that Kegel will be chancellor for the foreseeable future because what Northern needs is stability, not to immediately conduct yet another search for yet another chancellor. She said the university has been through too many changes in leadership in a short period of time, so Kegel will preside over the chancellor position until further notice. Northern has been through six chancellors in eight years.

Chancellor Jim Limbaugh's abrupt departure last week prompted Kegel's appointment.

"It's difficult," Cruzado said. "No business can survive with that kind of instability."

Concerning the tumult in staff and faculty morale, Cruzado emphasized that to make the next year and beyond successful, Kegel and his administrative team needed their support. The campus needs stability, she said, and people need to embrace the new chancellor.

Several audience members spoke of their favoring Kegel as the permanent chancellor instead of bringing in someone not familiar with the area.

However, because it is a public institution, a search will have to be made eventually.

"The time will come in which we'll talk about a search committee," Cruzado said, adding that she does not have the authority to stop the search processes.

She said she is going to wait until the community feels ready to embark on another search for a chancellor and then she will come back to Havre and initiate it.

She added that though Kegel has the experience, credentials and community support, it will not be enough to make him permanent chancellor. The university will still have to go through the search process, but she did not say when that would be.

An audience member expressed concern that the university was not getting enough state funds and was being passed over in a favoritist push to give the bigger universities the majority of funds.

Cruzado said Bozeman was actually passed over in the last passing out of state funding and Northern did receive funds. She then went to emphasize that Northern needs to build community and alumni support of the university in order to receive more private funding.

"This university has graduated amazing individuals," Cruzado said.

Trygve "Spike" Magelssen, a professor at Northern, expressed his concern about Northern having one of the most low-paid faculties in the U.S. and that endeavors to change this resulted in an "us versus them" mentality between faculty and administration.

Cruzado said that this was at the forefront of concerns with the board of regents, but legislation did not approve the raise in pays at the university. She said that the university must focus on recruiting more students in order to ensure the future or higher wages.

Overall, Cruzado said that Northern had nothing to worry about and that things were moving up.

"All things considered, you're sitting on a campus that's growing," Cruzado said.