Provost candidate says Northern in a strong position

Neil Moisey, the third of four candidates for Montana State University-Northern's provost and vice chancellor of academic affairs, said the university is poised to take advantage of its location, programs and mission statement.

"And that is why I applied for this position to be here, so I think this is a really, really exciting opportunity to see that happen," he said Tuesday during a public forum in Hensler Auditorium in Northern's Applied Technology Center.

Moisey is the third of four candidates being interviewed to replace Provost William Rugg, who retired June 30.

Elizabeth Mauch, a professor and former dean at the College of Education at Bloomburg University in Pennsylvania was interviewed last Monday. John Pratte, a physics professor and former dean of the College of Mathematics at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, was interviewed Monday.

A fourth and final candidate was interviewed at 11:15 a.m. today.

Moisey is the director of core curriculum for HealthCare Montana, a federal grant program at the University of Montana. Moisey is also the special assistant for academic affairs at the University of Montana. He served as Deputy Commissioner for Academic, Research and Student Affairs at the University of Montana July 2012 to July 2015.

He has a doctorate in forestry, a master's in business administration and a Bachelor of Science in accounting and finance, all from the University of Montana.

He said he applied for the position because he believes Moisey said he believes Northern's geographical location, programs and mission statement differentiates from other universities.

Moisey spoke at length about what he sees as multiple challenges in higher education.

"I have an appreciation I think in different scales in terms of what those challenges are and how they manifest and how you manage those at a campus level and then at a programatic level to a faculty member," Moisey said.

He said many of the challenges he sees came to his attention as director of core curriculum for HealthCare Montana,

Moisey said people are having discussions about the value of a college education.

He said that when the value of a college education or an education at a postsecondary institution is being discussed, the question needs to be asked whether that means earnings, having a better-informed citizenry or adding to the economy.

The value of an education, he said, might not accrue to an individual student while they are in that program or are in their first job or for 20 years.

During his PowerPoint presentation, Moisey cited a survey of about 1,600 people where fully three quarters of respondents said it is easier to be successful with a degree than without one. However, in that same survey, 51 percent said they believe plenty of well-paying jobs do not require going to college, despite solid evidence to the contrary, he said.

Moisey said economic opportunity exists in the country when people think of it in an economic framework.

Another trend is a change in how public higher education is funded, he said.

Higher education saw large increases in funding and public support after World War II, Moisey said. In recent years, that funding has declined both nationally and in Montana. He said that while the cost of education is going up or remaining the same, the state's proportional share of that cost has fallen.

That has had some real implications on social mobility as who is paying for the education transitions it from basically a public benefit to more of a private benefit, he said.

Who the students are has changed from traditional students just out of high school, Moisey said, in many cases to older nontraditional students who have families.

"So that might mean only holding classes at a certain time of the day or certain days of the week and that makes it very difficult for students to have a ... education because they don't have access to that communication," he said.

More online colleges exist and, Moisey said, evidence suggests students are assembling degrees from various sources, pulling them together and getting a degree on a campus.

More emphasis is also being placed on getting a degree that will then translate into immediate employment.

Students are graduating with large amounts of student debt, he said, adding that 60 percent of graduates in Montana owe on average $26,2800 in student debt. He said students and parents are becoming more price-conscious consumers and that has repercussions. The cost of education, he said, is less per credit at a two-year college than at a four-year college and students are responding by going to local community colleges and then transferring those credits to another college.

He said some states are also looking at low-cost or free courses. Tennessee, he said, has focused on developing a low-cost education such as a $10,000 bachelor's degree, much of which can be done online.

Moisey spoke of how he would address the challenges, starting with the campus mission.

Moisey said the mission is an important piece of how a campus is run and how they measure progress and monitor changes,

"So to me the mission is critical," he said.

It is important, he said, hat the quality of programs ensure that standards are met and assessed.

A significant piece of living up to a college's mission is the retention and recruitment of faculty, an area where Moisey said he has done a lot of work as a faculty member.

He said it is important to think about how to keep and provide professional opportunities for faculty to help them contribute to meeting the university's mission.

Moisey said he was impressed by a report from the Montana Department of Labor and Industry that said how many Northern students are graduating, working in their field and earning money in Montana.

"That is pretty exciting to see those results," Moisey said. "There are not a lot of other campuses that have that kind of success.

"So if you think about recruitment, and again I am a parent, that is the kind of stuff I look at," he said.

Moisey said he would also seek to maximize student access to academic opportunities through different delivery mechanisms. He said he uses the word access not only as a way to figure out how the student interfaces with learning on campus, but as a metaphor to ask how the university gets education out to students who have limited opportunity to be on the campus, such as those students who have a job, a family or live far away from the campus.

"Access is all about finding points for students to engage in the institutions," Moisely said,

The university also needs to identify and build academic programs that build on strengths of the campus, he said, adding that programs that bring students to campus need resources.

"Higher ed doesn't have to be a zero-sum game where you take a dollar from here to put it there and that program is now a dollar poorer," Moisey said. "There are a lot of other ways to bring resources to a program."

Moisey said the new Diesel Technology Center under construction is an example of getting needed dollars through fundraising.

Moisey said Northern has to continue to lead in apprenticeship programs.

As someone involved with the HealthCare Montana grant, Moisey said, he thinks the university's College of Nursing and Allied Health and allied health programs are other strong points for the campus.

"I just think there is a lot of opportunities there to be able to move those forward."

Moisey said he would look to build on undergraduate education programs that are in high demand such as an online master's program in nursing.

He added that he would also work to engage local communities, employers and the legislative delegation in advancing Northern's mission.