Gamble on MSU
by Carol Schmidt, Collegian editor

He's been on the job about two months, and Geoffrey Gamble, Montana State's eleventh president, and his wife, Patricia, have immersed themselves in all things MSU. They have watched every MSU home game (both men's and women's) and traveled the state. He's lobbied the State Legislature, sung with the MSU Pep Band, breakfasted with the governor and shaken a multitude of hands. The Collegian sat down with MSU's affable new leader recently and listened to his observations about the joys and challenges facing him and what he thinks needs to be done to position MSU for success.

Can you speak to your feeling on returning to the West?

You know it's fascinating for both Patricia and me. Having both grown up in the West, we hadn't thought much about what it meant to be a Westerner until we moved to Vermont (where Gamble was provost at the University of Vermont). Vermont is beautiful, and the people are very nice, gracious. We liked the experience there, but it also came through to us that there are subtle differences in how people view themselves, how they view the land. When it was all said and done, it was clear to us that we were Westerners at heart, by birth, and by tradition. Even in the interviews here in Bozeman, Patricia and I were struck by the fact that there was a comfort level that both of us felt and acknowledged. As we drove into Bozeman, up over the pass, there was this extremely strong feeling of being home.

How do you see MSU alumni helping you to create the MSU of the future?

Alumni have made this place. Their efforts have built the outstanding reputation that MSU enjoys, their tax dollars and gifts to MSU have sustained the institution through good times and bad, and their fierce loyalty has been both an encouragement and an admonition that we can and must do better. Alumni should be our first line of constructive criticism and review. They have earned that. They should also be our first line of defense and support. MSU is more important than its current president or any public officials. Alumni shouldn't let any harm come to their university. And I'd encourage them to stay in touch and engaged through the Alumni Association.

What do you now see as your biggest challenge at Montana State University?

Let me take a cut at the answer in a slightly different way. When I interviewed, I talked about the three major roles of a university president: an advocate, a leader and as a manager.

An advocate for an institution is someone out telling the university's story. In that role, I'm pretty excited. Montana State University is an extremely easy place to get excited about and talk about. There are so many good things that go on here. The quality of the students, the faculty and the staff. We know that we're producing a very high quality education here. There's cutting-edge research underway. It's a great place to be, and I get pretty excited about it. I don't see any real problems in working as an advocate for this institution.

As a leader, I think one of the more difficult initial assignments is to help Montana State University form a vision of itself: four campuses with a mission that spans the whole state. Clearly we're the state's university when we think of the presence we have - four campuses (Great Falls, Billings, Bozeman, Havre) and also the Agriculture Experiment Stations in the localities throughout the state. And then Montana State University Extension presence in virtually every county in the state including the reservations and the tribal colleges. I know this is a sensitive area for alumni, so the framing of a vision of Montana State University that embraces that whole array of things that impact across the state, is an important first step.

As a manager, I need to be putting into place accountability and assessment measures. I see both of those as important, but different. Assessment measures, internal indicators that allow us to gauge our progress toward important goals. And we need to understand how we're doing. We need to measure ourselves. Accountability measures will allow us to look outward and demonstrate to the public, to the legislature, to the business community, to others, that we're effective in reaching our goals. We need to bring both of those, both accountability and assessment measures, into place. It's just a matter of doing our work as managers of a university.

As managers, we need to come to grips with the financial situation. We're not in an emergency situation. The university has done reasonably well. But there are some financial stresses that we need to understand. There are some simple principles that we will put into place. And one of the things I think will be most difficult is to be able to tie the budget of the institution with the planning of the institution in some meaningful way. That will allow us to prioritize, to make decisions and to open this process up to a wider audience in the institution. This is how I choose to work. I think this might be difficult work because I'm not sure whether the university and the culture have thought of themselves in quite this way. I see this as one of the functions my leadership as I come in to create a budget process that works in a different way, in a little more open way.

What do you see as the role and fate of athletics at MSU?

Athletics is as much a part of an institution as anything. It's a value-added program that's extremely important. It teaches students teamwork and self-sufficiency. The question is what does one pay for athletics? There is a shortfall coming from (MSU) athletics. As each of us must, athletics must live within its budget. I would like to see a healthy athletics program and them living within a budget.

I believe athletics is very important to fundraising. You only have to look to football and what Doug Flutie did for Boston College. We call it the Flutie Phenomenon. Athletic success tends to be exciting and people want to participate. Athletics is so visible -- particularly football, men's and women's basketball. They are very competitive and results bring success. Patricia and I have been to every basketball game, both men's and women's, since we have moved here. I am supportive of athletics in its fullest.

What techniques will you bring to MSU from Vermont, which allots fewer dollars to higher education than does Montana?

There seem to be some things that are true for all universities. Particularly for public, land grant universities. The sources of revenue, the money that is actually available to run a university, are few: state appropriations, tuition, fundraising and retention.

State appropriations is the first source. But no state has sufficient revenue to do everything they'd like to do in higher education. Universities have to find ways to leverage every dollar they get from the state. I believe that leveraging will come about by framing very effective partnerships with other schools, government agencies and with the private sector. Together we'll find ways to make sure that every dollar that's made available for higher education in this state is used most effectively.

Tuition is the second revenue source for an institution. It is true that Vermont funds higher education at a much lower level than Montana does. When the state steps back a little bit and the costs continue to increase, you have to increase tuition.

Here, I think there are some opportunities for Montana State University. Our alumni have created an absolutely fantastic intuition. It's extremely easy to sell to prospective students and their parents as a high quality institution. Not only for Montanans, but also out-of-state students who pay higher tuition. I believe we can attract ever more good students who want to be in Montana.

The third revenue source is interesting because it's absolutely within our power to control. Once you get students to the university, you need to keep them here and graduate them. The third revenue source is retention.

A number of students every year come to the university and then for one reason or another change their mind and not finish their education. What we need to do is keep a large number of those students in the system, particularly those that are qualified. If the university can retain just one percent more of its student body, the amount of money for the budget is roughly $600,000 -- maybe a little more than that. (Editor's note, MSU's current retention rate is 69 percent of freshmen that return for their sophomore year). If your retention rate goes up, your graduation rate goes up also and you are doing a better job for your students.

The fourth revenue source, and one that I think we can do some pretty interesting things, is in fundraising, both private giving and corporate giving.

The alumni, friends and supporters of Montana State have already shown they can be generous in support. But virtually every university, particularly public land grants, has had to become much more aggressive in fund raising. It's an absolute necessity. It's just a fact in today's world. And I believe that Montana State University and the friends of Montana State University will find a way to actually increase private giving to this institution.

I would like to see us become very aggressive in fund raising for money to endow scholarships to make sure that we're providing access to Montana students. If, indeed, the state is unable to step up and provide for the university and tuition has to rise, we have to become very aggressive in seeking scholarship money.

I believe that universities are an absolutely fantastic investment for a state or for any person. The return on the investment is clearly illustrated. And we need to demonstrate what that return on investment is and we need to build in accountability measures so we can demonstrate to ourselves and to others that we're effective stewards of the resources that we have. And once you put that entire investment strategy together, it really argues for making that investment. It argues for the state to make that investment, it argues for private sector. It argues for others. One of the things we know, there are studies to show this, as states invest in higher education, as they changed the educational attainment of its population, there is a diminished reliance on health and human services and corrections. So the state can actually help itself by raising the educational level of the state's population. Our job is to put the case together, to go out and actually show folks why it's a good investment.