Montana State University Presidential Search

Montana State has set multiple student enrollment records over the past 15 years, becoming one of the fastest-growing universities in the nation and, by far, the largest university in the state and the largest university in a four-state region

Montana State University enrollment has increased 26% from 13,565 in 2010 to 17,144 in the fall of 2024. During this period the ACT and SAT scores and GPA of MSU students also rose to record levels. MSU has led the state in terms of gains in student retention and graduation rates.

In 2024, Montana State's retention rate hit its highest mark in more than 30 years of modern record keeping at 78.4%. MSU's four-year and five-year graduation rates also set modern records in 2024 at 40.8% and 54.9% respectively.

MSU students consistently stand out as recipients of prestigious national awards. Over the past 15 years, the university has produced three Rhodes Scholars, two Gates-Cambridge Scholars, two Marshall Scholars, five Schwarzman Scholars, nine Truman Scholars and 13 Udall Scholars, among many other impressive student recognitions. With 90 Goldwater Scholars, Montana State is among the nation's top recipients of the prestigious scholarship for students who demonstrate excellence in math, science and engineering. 

As the state's land-grant university, MSU's mission is to integrate education, the creation of knowledge and art, and service to communities. As part of that mission, MSU maintains the largest research operation of any type in the state of Montana. Its annual research expenditures are almost entirely composed of federal dollars won by faculty vying for competitive grants. In the fiscal year ending in June 2024, that total hit nearly $258 million.  

The Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education designates MSU as an R1 university for its "very high research activity," and it is one of just two institutions in the nation that also have enrollment profile of "Very High Undergraduate."

The university is home to 300 laboratories, 44 research centers and seven agricultural research stations. Those centers and institutes are hubs of research innovation, representing fields from optical sensing and the gut microbiome to water quality and rural education. They include MilTech, the Western Transportation Institute, the Thermal Biology Institute, and the Center for Mental Health Research and Recovery. MSU is also part of multiple statewide and regional initiatives, including NSF EPSCoR, the Montana Space Grant and Western Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education.

Additionally, MSU operates its Core Facilities, which are spaces across campus designed to facilitate access to cutting-edge technology across multiple disciplines and research areas. These include facilities specializing in mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance, cyberinfrastructure, social data collection, microfabrication, chemical analysis, geospatial science, biofilms and more.

As the state's land-grant university, Montana State University is the proud home of MSU Extension. With 96 MSU Extension agents and 26 subject matter experts, MSU Extension serves local needs in 56 counties and seven reservations. MSU Extension improves lives and communities across Montana by providing unbiased, research-based education in youth and community leadership, agriculture, horticulture, healthy living, estate planning, youth development, and more.

Program highlights include: 

• Reimaging Rural: This program to help invigorate rural communities with discussion and action. 
• Montana 4-H: Montana 4-H reaches more than 17,000 youth from every county and reservation in the state with more than 3,100 trained and certified volunteers.
• Drought Response: In response to severe drought in 2021 and 2022, MSU Extension provided 55 teaching seminars across the state educating agricultural producers and communities about drought. 
• Local Government Center: The MSU Extension Local Government Center strengthens the capacities of local governmental units and provides training, technical assistance and research services to elected, appointed and administrative officials.
• Mental Health First Aid: Since 2020, MSU Extension instructors trained 246 adults and youth in mental health first aid. 

MSU has seen the completion of numerous major construction and renovation projects in recent years. Those include the state-funded renovation and repurposing of historic Romney Hall. Opened in the fall of 2021, the century-old Romney went from a disused facility to one of the most heavily used classroom buildings on campus, seating more than 1,000 students each hour.  

Other highlights include the 2015 opening of Jabs Hall; the 2018 opening of Norm Asbjornson Hall, an innovative classroom and laboratory facility that is home of the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and the Honors College. In 2021, MSU opened its American Indian Hall, which serves as a home to MSU's American Indian community as well as a bridge between American Indian culture and other cultures on campus, and in 2024, the university opened its new Student Wellness Center, which provides one location for all student fitness, recreation, and physical and mental health services.

Multiple projects are also underway, including the construction of Gianforte Hall, a new home for computing and related fields such as cybersecurity, optics and photonics, electrical and computer engineering, and creative industries, and Jones Hall, the new home of the Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing – as well as four new nursing education buildings at the sites of MSU’s other nursing campuses statewide. 

In terms of athletics facilities, MSU has seen the expansion of its Bobcat Stadium with the Sonny Holland End Zone and the 2021 opening of the Bobcat Athletic Complex. Currently under construction is the Kennedy-Stark Indoor Athletic Center.  

MSU has opened multiple new residence halls in recent years, including the 510-bed Hyalite Hall in 2020, the 400-bed Yellowstone Hall in 2016 and the 72-bed Gallatin Hall in 2013. The Langford and Hapner student residence halls also received significant renovations in 2015.  

In 2018, the university's new Rendezvous Dining Pavilion opened, and in the fall of 2015, MSU reopened the renovated Miller Dining Commons. The MSU Library, Brick Breeden Fieldhouse and Strand Union Building also saw renovations and modernizations, and in 2017 MSU opened a 550-space parking garage. 

Montana State University has a long and proud history of athletic competition and support for its 350-plus student-athletes both on and off the field, a formula for success rooted in MSU's commitment to excellence, progress and growth. 

The past few years have proven to be the greatest period of success in MSU Bobcat history, including 2021-22, which was dubbed the Year of the Bobcat. That year saw Bobcat football compete for the national championship; both men and women's basketball earn conference tournament titles; and men's tennis finish as regular season champions. 

In 2022-23, the university claimed its third Big Sky Conference President's Cup in recognition for the best combined success in athletics and academics. MSU also earned its second straight Big Sky Conference Men's All-Sports Trophy, and, for the seventh year in a row, took home the Brawl of the Wild Series trophy in recognition of victories over MSU's in-state rivals. 

In the past two academic years, out of 23 opportunities, MSU athletics teams finished in the top three of the Big Sky Conference's standings 21 times. The 2021-22 academic year marked the third time in history an athletic program finished in the top three of the Big Sky standings in every sport in which it participated, and two of those seasons belonged to MSU. 

Other recent athletics highlights include: 

• MSU again in 2022-23 captured the men's basketball tournament championship and earned its first-ever back-to-back NCAA tournament appearance. The women's team also took home a share of the regular season crown. 
• MSU rodeo, which recently formally became part of the Bobcat Athletics family, finished second in the women's competition at the 2023 College National Finals Rodeo. The women's team also won the 2021 national championship. 
• Bobcat men's cross-country qualified to compete at the NCAA Nationals in November 2023. 
• MSU has finished in the top 10 in the NCAA Ski Championships for 13 straight years.
• In 2022, ESPN's College GameDay opted to choose frigid Bozeman as the location for its live broadcast, highlighting the storied Brawl of the Wild Cat-Griz football game between the Bobcats and the rival University of Montana. 

Bobcat Athletics has also logged more than 40 consecutive semesters with a combined team GPA of better than 3.0, with 2022-23 hitting a high of 3.37. Student-athletes have earned CoSIDA Academic All-America honors seven times and NCAA Post-Graduate Scholarships four times since current Director of Athletics Leon Costello came to MSU.