State Democratic leaders hold roundtable at Havre university

Top Montana Democratic state lawmakers stopped by Montana State University-Northern Tuesday for a discussion with faculty, staff and other community leaders about Northern’s programs, goals and challenges.

House Minority Leader Jenny Eck, D-Helena, said the stop is one of several she and state Senate Minority Leader Jon Sesso, D-Butte, are making as they travel across Montana to get an idea of the proprieties of Montanans ahead of the 2019 Legislative session.

“It’s easy to be caught up in the Helena bubble, and think you know what matters, but that is not a substitute for getting out and talking to people,” she said.

Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel said state lawmakers have to better understand the importance of their role in funding the Montana University System.

“We are dependent on you guys,” he said.

Kegel said the university has had to deal with budget cuts.

Due to state revenue coming in lower than expected and because of the bad wildfire season, the Montana Legislature enacted across-the-board spending cuts that meant Northern received about $1 million in less state funding.

Kegel said it is also important that the six mill levy that the university relies on for funding and will be on the ballot this year is approved by voters.

Northern Provost Neil Moisey said he believes a 2015 research initiative that made money available to each unit in the university system to do research that enhances Montana’s economy allowed each unit within the system to play a role in Montana’s economic development.

Montana Board of Regents member and Democratic state Senate candidate Paul Tuss asked about tuition assistance to financially at-risk students.

Tracey Jette, senior director at Northern’s Student Success Center, said at Northern, 85 percent of students are eligible for financial aid and 90 percent qualify for TRIO, a federal program that offers finical assistance to college students from low income and otherwise disadvantaged backgrounds.

She said $250,000 in state aid for students has dried up.

“We have students who do not have the ability to fully fund their education through loans and need-based aid scholarships and grants; they have to go to outside resources,” Jette said.

She said that is something that is new for Northern and is part of the reason student head count fell last fall.

Northern does have an emergency aid fund that allows the university to grant up to $500 to a student facing financial struggles in a given semester, but that amount is so small that it acts as a band-aid for students, she added.

Tom Welch, an agriculture instructor at Northern, said that the lack of career exploration and career tech education in middle and high school needs to be changed.

For students interested in coming to Northern, Welch said, middle school and high school is where student interest in trades like plumbing, electrical and welding starts. Although students in agriculture are still well-prepared, many others come to Northern further behind in those areas, such as not knowing how to use tools.

Larry Strizich, Northern’s dean of the College of Technical Sciences, said careers in trades offer good pay and are needed by industry as baby boomers in those positions start to retire.

Kegel said that about 10 to 15 years ago, Northern established a two-year associate degree program for aspiring plumbers.

The program provides students with all the related training work and on-the-job training time to be able to start as an apprentice plumber.

In February, the website schools.com ranked Northern’s program as the 10th best plumbing degree program in the nation.

After finding success with the plumbing program, Northern then created similar programs in the electrical and welding fields.

Strizich said the electrical program was so booked when it started they had to create a summer program for it so the class sizes would be small enough to effectively teach.

Northern also offers related apprentice training programs with plumbing and electrical companies.

Jette said Northern offers cooperative experience where they do work in exchange for credit. Eight campus programs require students take part in a cooperative education or internship for credit.

The cooperative work experience, she said, allows them to learn and experience elements on the job that they can’t learn in the classroom.

Welch said Northern has a knack for allowing students to get experience in the technology, science and non-technical fields. He said that he has students who take his agriculture classes who also take business or diesel technology classes.

Strizich said because Northern has one- two- and four-year degree programs many students enroll intending to go for one thing but then do something more.

He added that faculty are adept at convincing students to prepare themselves not just for a job but also a career.

Eck asked who Northern’s students are.

Jette said that about 98 percent of Northern students are from Montana, but the number of out-of-state students is growing.

Schools in northern Montana are getting smaller, and so Northern is looking to attract more students from outside the region and the state, she said.

Northern admissions director Maura Gatch said Northern is taking steps to improve its recruitment such as sending emails to people based on interests and making video testimonials from students talking about the programs in which they are enrolled.

“Our students are our best recruiters, so we are just trying to get their faces out there,” Gatch said.

Faculty touted some of Northern’s signature programs, such as work on alternative fuels at the the Advanced Fuel Center.

Strizich said the center was initially designed to experiment with the conversion of locally grown seed crops into biodiesel.

He said biodiesel is difficult to market because it needs to be produced in a way that is cheaper then petroleum diesel.

The center has worked to create biojet fuel and biodiesel using camelina.

Camelina is a rotation crop that can be successfully grown in northern Montana. However to do research on a large scale, they need a production facility, he said.

“Again, it really comes down to a function of getting it inexpensive enough to compete with petroleum,” Strizich said.