UM president says education, innovation crucial in modern world

University of Montana President Seth Bodnar was the keynote speaker at Bear Paw Development Corp's annual meeting Thursday, where he discussed the role that higher education plays in shaping an ever-evolving economy.

Bodnar is a graduate of West Point, a Rhodes and Truman scholar, and earned two master's degrees from the University of Oxford. He served as an assistant professor in the Department of Social Sciences at West Point, and continues to serve as a U.S. Army Reserve officer. His military career includes serving in the 101st Airborne Division and the Army's First Special Forces Group. As a Green Beret, Bodnar served as a special assistant to the Commanding General in Iraq.

  Prior to being appointed president of the University of Montana, Bodnar was a senior executive at the General Electric Company, served as president of General Electric Transportation's Digital Solutions business, and was General Electric Transportation's first-ever chief digital officer.

In his 45-minute address, Bodnar emphasized the need for higher education and other institutions to be able to adapt and innovate in what Bodnar said is an increasingly complex world.

Leaders, he said, will need to rise to confront challenges and work to answer the questions that at this point many don't know to ask.

"And higher ed, institutions of higher education, play an incredibly important role in helping them do just that." Bodnar said.

Excellent universities, he said, are needed now more than ever for several reasons, including in helping prepare the workforce for jobs in a world of increased computing power, artificial intelligence and automation that Bodnar said are powerful.

Bodnar said that about four years ago he heard a presentation where someone said that Uber, the largest taxi company, does not own any vehicles; the largest accommodations provider, Air BnB, does not own any hotels, and that Facebook, the most influential media system, does not produce any content.

The companies, he said, are examples of how rapidly the economy is changing, as is the world of higher education.

When students go to a college they are investing in a four-year education, he said. Estimates, though, show that half of the jobs that will be available to students coming into higher education, he said, do not yet exist.

That world, he said, is one where vehicles will drive themselves and where universities must not only prepare students for a job after they graduate but for a series of jobs they will hold throughout their professional life.

"And that is a really tough challenge, something we are all wrestling with," he said.

All universities, he said, have to think about how they are preparing for students in such a world,

Universities, he said, are also needed to shape informed, educated citizens, especially in a modern climate of polarization, where people stick to media that conforms with their own views and where civil discourse has deteriorated.

"We cannot underestimate the importance of higher education in shaping people and helping encourage the free and helpful exchange of ideas, in being a place that enables that," Bodnar said.

Universities, he added, are also important because they are engines of economic growth.

A university, he said, needs to provide sparks, innovation and new ideas and educated, adaptable people that can fuel economic growth in Montana.

Higher education, and other institutions, must adapt and innovate, Bodnar said.

He talked about his time in the military, and the private sector as a examples of such change.

Bodnar said that he graduated from West Point in the 1990s soon after the Cold War, with military training that largely focused on combating Soviet forces on the European continent.

When he was leading a special forces team in the southern Philippines in 2007, though, the focus was much different than what he had been trained for.

Bodnar said his team's mission involved working with a group of Philipine marines to pacify an area of the southern Philippines near the border with Indonesia, where a part of the 9/11 attacks were planned and the 2002 Bali bombing was planned.

The situation was similar to the one Bodnar later faced when he served as a Green Beret in Iraq, where he served as a special assistant to the commanding general.

When the U.S. military invaded Iraq in 2003, beat the Iraqi Army and removed President Saddam Hussein, Bodnar said, the military did so using their own strengths in speed, maneuvering and overwhelming Iraq's conventional power.

However, after the invasion, an insurgency broke out across the country where attacks were launched by an ill-defined enemy against the forces of U.S. and coalition countries, as well as the Iraqi public.

The military then had to shift its focus from defeating a conventional military to reducing the number of attacks so that Iraqis would feel confident that they would be safe and they would be better in post-Hussein Iraq.

Both the Phiilipines and Iraq operations, he said, are examples of how organizations are forced to adapt while under fire at a rapid pace.

"And when you look at the change and innovation that took place within about 10 years in the U.S. military, it's quite impressive to see a large organization adapt in the way it had," Bodnar said.

Such need to adapt, he said, also exists in business.

Bodnar said that General Electric was one of the original 12 companies on the Dow Jones Industrial Average. More than a century later, many of the 11 other companies no longer exist, but General Electric does.

He said General Electric has survived because it is constantly reinventing itself, adapting and innovating.

Bodnar said during his time with General Electric, they had to do a better job selling software that helps locomotives run. They could no longer just sell the locomotive, he said, but had to do a better job selling the software if General Electric was to survive.

Like the U.S. Army, Bodnar said, General Electric had to adapt to remain relevant.

No class, Bodnar said, taught him how to do what he did in the military of business, but his broad-based interdisciplinary education was critical in preparing him to meet those challenges,.

Universities, he said, have to figure out how they are going to adapt, innovate and most effectively meet the needs of students, the state of Montana and the nation.

"And I think every leader in  higher ed is wrestling with this same challenge," he said.

The world, Bodnar said, needs creative and agile life long learners who can solve problems across different areas.

The University of Montana, he said, is focused on not only helping students get a job right out of college but enabling them to adapt and innovate and thrive over the life of their entire career.

Despite a heavy emphasis on technical skills, there is also a continued need for people in the arts, social sciences and humanities.

Bodnar said Microsoft President Brad Smith recently published a book about artificial intelligence that looks at the impact of increasing levels of artificial intelligence and its societal impact.

As computers become more sophisticated, the social sciences and humanities become more important, Bodnar said.

"So the idea of a skills-based only education is not going to prepare students for the world," he said.

Soft skills, he said, such as communication, collaboration, critical thinking, flexibility and creativity are the ones employers most value.

"And so, as we are reshaping the University of Montana, this is what we are keeping in mind. Yes, we have to make students job ready, but when half the jobs they are going to have in 15 years don't yet exist today, how do you do that?"

Bodnar said he is focused in four areas to help the University of Montana in that mission: pursuing excellence and innovation, emphasizing stewardship and sustainability, recruit, retain and graduate students and prioritize mission first and people always.

Excellence, he said is not an accident, but must be sought, intentionally pursued. That, he said, is done by understanding an individual or institutions strengths, A disciplined focus on what they will do and not do.