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Tim Polasek
- Thread starter 5280Griz
- Start date
I'm curious was this even means. Enrollment is down because of politics on campus? What alternative viewpoints are not looked favorably upon?
And 2025? 1,214. A 20% decrease from 2024. This is after a very slow and gradual increase for a few years, which of course followed a horrifying drop in enrollment. We're damn near in crisis mode for enrollment at UM, but bidnar spends his time delivering pizzas and putting out media articles touting "progress" in enrollment, when in actuality they rigged the numbers to include Montana college students and other figured they never used to include.
Again, they do deserve credit for great grad program numbers. Freshman and undergrad numbers are abysmal. Truly.
This is sad... troublesome
What in the absolute F**K is going on? You have got to take a hard look at your admissions and marketing departments...
Oft-maligned Andrew Schmidt might be on to something in suggesting that not just the football program, but the university as a whole has a massive "nothing to see here" problem of failing to even admit that anything is going wrong.
I wholeheartedly agree that as of right now, this university should first recognize and acknowledge that bozeman is kicking our ass, and then make its mission from top to bottom in all respects focused on beating MSU at EVERYTHING.
It should be crisis mode. They've fucked around for so long its insane. I graduated in 2006, student enrollment was well north of 14k. During Royce engstroms illustrious tenure, there was the well documented "CRM issue" that lasted for 2 full years before they did anything about it (supposedly they're contact management system for prospective student outreach failed, but somehow wasnt recognized for 2 years), but to this day, western Montana families talk at length about their kids receiving little to nothing from UM, but TONS of out reach from MSU.
A close friend of mine has a daughter right now looking at schools. Applied to both UM and MSU (among other schools around the pac NW). Said UMs process was clunky, had to resubmit stuff often, communication was spotty etc. MSU's process? Automatically accepted, inundated with communication etc etc.
Its laughable how apathetic and fucked up our student recruitment and admissions dept is. I cant stand it, and somehow it continues to go from bad to worse. The numbers, aside from our graduate student enrollment numbers, were appallingly bad this fall. Yet nobody is discussing remodies or improvement, only manipulating the numbers to somehow tell a story that all is well.
My stepdaughter is a senior in high school with A+ grades. She applied to MSU, UM & USU and chose USU despite my warning about the predominate religion and the isolation of Logan, Utah. When all was said and done she chose USU with UM coming in a distant 3rd.
I blame the BOR as much as the previous two administrations, yes George and Royce, for their failure in leadership and lack of vision. The now retired president of MSU had both of those qualities in spades. The Board of Regents failure to grasp the notion that academics don’t always, or seldom understand how to run a multi million dollar institution.
As a UM graduate it pains me to see and hear all the accolades directed towards MSU. Not so much in their success, as a native Montanan I applaud their success, but for bragging rights. And the fact they beat us in the Brawl, now that really pisses me off.
I blame the BOR as much as the previous two administrations, yes George and Royce, for their failure in leadership and lack of vision. The now retired president of MSU had both of those qualities in spades. The Board of Regents failure to grasp the notion that academics don’t always, or seldom understand how to run a multi million dollar institution.
As a UM graduate it pains me to see and hear all the accolades directed towards MSU. Not so much in their success, as a native Montanan I applaud their success, but for bragging rights. And the fact they beat us in the Brawl, now that really pisses me off.
I don't begrudge MSUs success. I begrudge UM for not stepping up to the plate and competing. Its an epidemic of apathy and mediocrity at the university of montana, and has been for over a decade. I hate to say it, but thats the way I see it.
I would hope so with 150+ million dollar budgets.
Bring receipts before you go on a maga rant dude.
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GriznMN
Well-known member
Is Seth Bodnar an academic? He's been president since 2018. When do we start to hold his feet to the fire?
Ut-Grizfan
Well-known member
Not the place for this.
mthoopsfan
Well-known member
Many wish you had gone somewhere else.
mthoopsfan
Well-known member
Hold Bodnar's feet to fire for what? He's doing a terrific job.
So what is/are the problem(s)? Part of it is programs offered. What can the university do in that sense? Offer stuff of interest in 2025. Journalism is meh, everyone can write now especially with AI. Forrestry? I mean limited jobs there, need solid computer, AI academic endeavors, sciences. Figure THAT out first. The process is another issue obviously. That can be fixed with a simple…you’re fired. Someone, though, needs to take ownership of that part. Do they know some of these examples we just read? Email people. Put it on social media. Expose the issue and force the fix.
This IS part of the problem. Weve added a few new degree paths here and there, but nothing overly significant. As an example, weve developed a cool cyber security degree. Entertainment management degree etc etc.
But to me, we just simply have not done a good job of developing and exposing what we're already good at and recruiting to it. Computer science which could lead to huge AI developments, health sciences, business school, sciences in general... weve got one of the top ecology programs in the country, as an example.
This issue can't be discussed too much. Needs to be shouted from the rooftops. Ive sat in bodnars office with his team probably 7 years ago and spelled out the concerns. For whatever reason, while its talked about amongst community members , nothing seems to change. The excuse I was told was budget concerns, regarding student out reach. I told bodnar, by whatever means necessary, the funds need to be found to enrich student recruitment efforts. I brought up the use of some endowment dollars, and I might as well have had 2 heads by the way he looked at me. Schools have these enormous endowment funds, but good luck trying to figure out what the F they spend that money on or what its actual purpose is.
I like bodnar, but the reality is we have fallen short of what seems like the mission of our university should be.
I don’t disagree with your statement about Seth Bodner’s need to be held accountable. How long should/will it take to right the ship? Is Seth Bodner the right person to do it? One would think seven years to correct the mistakes of the past forty or fifty years should be solved by now? Look at what Bodner has to deal with. A hostile teachers union that rewards tenure over performance, a BOR that cannot hit its ass with both hands. They, the BOR, has permitted our sister institution to duplicate programs, i.e. the School of Business for one, thay even compete against our Business School.
I don’t begin to have the answers. Unfortunately my view, and yours is from 30,000’ and the problems of enrollment, tenured professors whose areas of expertise don’t match up with today’s requirements. A hostile BOR and a State legislature that denies funding for new programs.
GriznMN
Well-known member
What KPIs point to him executing on a strategic vision to increase FTE student enrollment?
GriznMN
Well-known member
Was it better with Bullock and Tester rather than the Bozoland trio of Gianforte, Daines, and Downing?
