Tim Leeds Havre Daily News tleeds@havredailynews.com
After seven years at the helm of Montana State University-Northern and 29 years as the head of a Montana college Chancellor Alex Capdeville has announced he is retiring at the end of the month. “This is a good time to go,” Capdeville said in an interview Wednesday. “I have a lot of years in.” Capdeville, 61, told people during a regularly scheduled open forum at the university at noon Wednesday that Dec. 31 will be his last day as chancellor. He will start post-retirement work at Montana State University-Bozeman next year, helping develop a two-year vocational-technical program in Gallatin County and in a faculty position with the College of Education, Health and Human Development. Capdeville said he will remain in Havre until June, and will assist Northern as needed, such as continuing work he has started to create transfer agreements with Canadian education programs, during that time. While his tenure has had some great successes, such as completing the plan of building a $4 million stateof- the art technology center and improving the campus infrastructure, there have been some stumbles as well, such as a serious decline in enrollment. Montana State University President Geoff Gamble said he plans to be up to Havre next week, possibly Tuesday, to talk to people from the university and the community about finding Capdeville’s replacement. He said he plans to select someone, probably from outside of Northern’s staff, to take the interim chancellor position by the first of the year. “I need to find someone I know and work well with,” Gamble said. He said he will work closely with Northern and the Havre community to find the permanent chancellor, adding that he does not know when that will start. “We want to make sure there isn’t a big gap in time,” Gamble said. “ When the time comes for doing something more permanent there will be a national search, with all the pomp and circumstance that goes with that.” Gamble said he also is pleased Capdeville has agreed to work at the Bozeman campus. “Alex is a really talented individual. We are looking forward to him being down here,” Gamble said. Commissioner of Higher Education Sheila Stearns, who has credited Capdeville with great improvements to the look and infrastructure of the campus, said she will miss working closely with him once he retires. “ Capdeville has been a personal friend as well as colleague,” she said. Capdeville who grew up on a ranch near Opheim and is a graduate of Northern and a former Havre High School auto shop teacher took the position vacated by Mike Rao in 2000. Capdeville was appointed to a two-year position in September 2000, then was given the permanent position the next year. He was chief executive officer of the Helena College of Technology for 22 years before taking the position at Northern. Capdeville can point to many successes in his seven years, although one goal he named in 2000 increasing enrollment has gone the other way. Northern has lost students in its fall numbers every year except one since 2001, when it had a total enrollment of 1,589. The university saw a slight increase from 2005 to 2006, when it picked up 38 students for a fall total of 1,388. This year Northern had the largest decrease in the state, dropping by 173 students to 1,215. Capdeville said he believes success in some other areas, including improving resident life at the university, improving the campus look and infrastructure and other improvements including building the Applied Technology Center, have kept the enrollment from dropping further. “We had a decline in enrollment but I can’t imagine where it would be without improvements to resident life” and other areas, Capdeville said, adding that work in some subject areas also gives Northern students the edge. “Programs like biofuels put our students in the next generation,” he said. “We took the lead, I think, on that in the state.” He also touted programs Northern was the first to offer in the state tying degrees to apprenticeship programs. The programs in plumbing, electronics and construction have been copied by other Montana institutions since Northern implemented them. Capdeville listed repairing the campus, which had been put under “deferred maintenance” for years, as one of his main goals when he started as chancellor. Under his leadership, the dormitories have been worked on, including adding Internet, cable television and phone access to the rooms. Other work includes renovating Cowan and Pershing halls and Brockman Center, changing the parking lot between Cowan Hall and the gymnasium into a college-style quad with grass and sidewalks, and more projects in the works including installing new heating and ventilation systems in the gym and the Vande Bogart library and a complete renovation of the automotive technology building. While some members of the university staff and people in the community have expressed dissatisfaction with Capdeville’s tenure, he said he has no regrets. He said his background has helped with the success he has had. “My greatest success at Northern, I think, was understanding what it’s about in this region. That contributed to my success,” Capdeville said, adding that everybody has different opinions on that. He said he and his wife, Suzy, also a Northern graduate, will miss the community but it is time to move on. “The people here have been great to my wife and I. We’ve had a lot of community support,” he said. “I don’t regret for a minute coming here. It was professionally a good move and personally rewarding just to be here.”
