UM has 'enrollment problem,' Engstrom tells regents

[CDAGRIZ]

making ALL students take a test on sexual assault before they are able to sign up for next semesters classes.

Excuse me? Did this happen?

 

[grizcountry420]

making ALL students take a test on sexual assault before they are able to sign up for next semesters classes.

Excuse me? Did this happen?

Sure did....

 

[BadlandsGrizFan]

making ALL students take a test on sexual assault before they are able to sign up for next semesters classes.

Excuse me? Did this happen?

Yes it did, and everyone was extremely pissed off. I would assume they still do it to. It was about 10 questions and it came with a series of short 5 min videos that explain terms and Montana laws in regard to sexual assault.

 

[BadlandsGrizFan]

making ALL students take a test on sexual assault before they are able to sign up for next semesters classes.

Excuse me? Did this happen?

Yes it did, and everyone was extremely pissed off. I would assume they still do it to. It was about 10 questions and it came with a series of short 5 min videos that explain terms and Montana laws in regard to sexual assault.

And you literally could not log in to register for classes until you completed this quiz.

 

[first11]

Engstrom inherited years of the previous administration that simply neglected a cogent plan for a future that most of on campus recognized, the most obvious is a building binge at the expense of classroom instruction.

Maybe RE was not the best choice, BUT if any recall, there was NOT long or stellar list of applicants for the job when Dennison stepped down. Most stayed away because they had a good idea of what awaited them....and it had little to do with football.

 

[AllWeatherFan]

Engstrom is a duesch!!

So I'd say were all in agreement here that ole Royce IS IN FACT A GIANT DUESCH!

RE is A GIANT DUESCHE!!

Can somebody translate this into English? It appears to be in German, but I'm not sure. :lol:

 

[maroonandsilver]

This! :clap:

I know there is a problem with Uof M, when I have watched the last two televised Griz football games on the T.V! During both of these two broadcasts there were 4-5 MSU ads. However; I did not see ONE Uof M ad during the same broadcasts. To me, thats almost a backhand by the adminstration, not taking a little time to showcase the academics during the game. Alot of people I know, have mentioned the same thing.

BS!! I watched the games as well, and there were UM adds as well as MSU adds. You musta been in the head!

 

[statler & waldorf]

No issues here, lets move on and take the high road.

Like hell. This a golden opportunity to pin the inept handling of events of the past couple years right on his ass. Time to say goodbye to Royce. rotesst: Credit where credit is due.

 

[tnt]

Engstrom inherited years of the previous administration that simply neglected a cogent plan for a future that most of on campus recognized, the most obvious is a building binge at the expense of classroom instruction.

Maybe RE was not the best choice, BUT if any recall, there was NOT long or stellar list of applicants for the job when Dennison stepped down. Most stayed away because they had a good idea of what awaited them....and it had little to do with football.

One thing RE has done is clear out enough of the "old Guard" to allow some change. It is very true there were few who wnated to follow Dennison and the mess he created, which will take years to recover form. Ifrastucture is not program. Its a shame he had to deal with the Athletic issues before he could really start to clean house. Foleys and Coutures departure was a good start. There have been other less known names leave that have had a great effect. He may pull it off yet. Nearly half the decline in enrollment was from the economy, but not quite in the way described here. The University (including the Vo-tech) was filled up with non traditional students whose way was being paid for by "grants" (mills shutting down, expanded voc rehab etc.) whether the change will come in time or not is anyones guess.

And yes the entire country is questioning the value of attending a University especially when the graduates aren't getting jobs......

I'm suprised thet PR didn't grab at the obvious which is the Freshman/Sophomore retention rate being high may indicate a recruiting problem, but will pay off the next two years UNLESS the transfer rate Jr levels say to , Nursing School being run in Missoula BY MSU (almost 200 of that two year total), out of state nursing programs, engineering schools etc is problematic

 

[mcg]

ok....NOW it can go to the political forum.

That is where this belongs for sure. MCG and his liberal bent will have enrollment increasing at UM next!

How can you say I have a 'liberal bent'? I've simply pointed out that there is no depressed Obama economy'. It's a fact.

 

[mcg]

I'm curious as to why it's the "depressed Obama economy"? Since Mr. Obama became president both the economy and employment have grown.
Your point is well taken, although I don't think there was ever a time where graduates in Anthropology and Renaissance Literature fared particularly well in the job market.

It's grown because it damn near bottomed out, and it hasn't grown because of Obama backed industries( how well has the billions invested in green energy panned out in growing our economy) but instead the very industries that Obama chastised and swore to reduce like energy extraction companies have reignited our economy drastically. The shale oil revolution in our country is a driving factor behind our economy coming back. NOT OBAMA!

Sorry, but the definition of 'economic depression' is when the economy shrinks. As you point out, the economy has grown under Mr. Obama's leadership, thus there can be no 'depressed Obama economy'.

I never once used the term economic depression or the term depressed economy, those were your words, I was simply stating that many of the sectors that are powering our economy now are not because of Obama and that many of them are in fact the very corporations that Obama said he was going to crack down on..that is until they started bailing his economy out of the cellar.

You did say 'depressed Obama economy'.

 

[mcg]

My daughter was in the graduating class of 2012 and now attends msu. When selecting a school she reached out to both. The recruiting efforts by msu were absolutely amazing. They had a 3 day orientation where the kids and a parent visited and were given a perfect tour. Every aspect of the school was addressed and it felt very inviting. The UM tour was meet some girl at the admissions office with 10 others and get walked around campus by someone who didn't want to be there. My daughter was accepted into both the Davidson Honors College and The Honors school at MSU with a full tuition waiver. The interst from MSU was over whelming. They wanted her at MSU. UM had a interview with her but it felt very awkward. I might be a bit biased as she is my daughter but why in the world would MSU "court" her weekly and UM never really made much of an effort. She graduated CMR as the 6th ranked kid, scored 31 on her ACT, and was very active in sports. Gotta say I was very dissapointed in UofM. They gave her no reason to attend in relation to MSU. She is currently on the deans list with a perfect 4.0 and excelling as a young adult. My son who will graduate in 2015 is as talented has heard from MSU but not UM. Go figure
I will say my daughter is getting a good education and is enjoying herself.

Good post. In our very typical suburban Colorado high school Bozeman State has great mind-share and awareness among the counselors and teachers, UM has none. Recruiting is a key problem that needs to be addressed as it is very important to growing enrollment.

 

['68griz]

RE, trying to burnish his PC credentials as a strong president in the stellar mold of Richard Brodhead at Duke University, was the first to accuse the University of Montana of having a "rape problem," by his actions and words which 1) contributed to the perception by the disastrous handling of the Saudi student, 2) making a high profile claim to dealing with the problem by hiring an outside consultant who had never done such a study before, 3) firing everybody in sight that contributed to "The Problem," 4) never pointing to the low rate of such incidents at UM compared to peer institutions including MSU, and 5) never standing up for his institution to demonstrably false allegations of "rape nation."

The enrollment drop began then.

The enrollment drop had nothing to do with the "recession," which officially ended in June, 2009. Indeed, most public colleges remained stable or increased enfrollment including liberal arts colleges. http://chronicle.com/article/Recession-Reshaped-College/128223/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UM's enrollment problems began when Royce Engstrom abdicated his responsibilities to the University of Montana and became the accuser instead of the defender of the University.

The "facts" have since proven Engstrom entirely wrong. He refuses to accept responsibility.

In his own cynical words: "it's time for new leadership."

Very good post. Agreed. As someone said earlier, it isn't an enrollment problem, it's a leadership problem.

This, over and over and over and over.
My belief is that not only does Engstrom not believe in the athletic program in general, or the football program in particular, he does not believe in the university as a whole. The only thing he believes in is his job, and he believes that is damn important. Sigh!

 

[AllWeatherFan]

I try really hard not to question people's motives or make value judgments, whether we're talking about Barack Obama, George W. Bush or Royce Engstrom. It's best to assume these people all want what's best for America or the University of Montana.

 

[Grisly Fan]

I try really hard not to question people's motives or make value judgments, whether we're talking about Barack Obama, George W. Bush or Royce Engstrom. It's best to assume these people all want what's best for America or the University of Montana.

I'll bet that Pat William's would have told you that he was trying to make the UM a better place but does that mean its true in all contexts? Motives and methods are often indistinguishable.

 

[argh!]

Motives and methods are often indistinguishable.

what?

 

[UMGriz75]

Pardon my ignorance but is there anything in writing anywhere that designates the UM as a liberal arts school and MSU as a technology school per se? Or can each school take their curriculum whichever direction that they want? For example, could the UM decide to form an electrical engineering school?

The Land Grants were set up to assist homesteading -- agriculture, extension services, agronomy, sheep -- and then states set up their own "U's" to educate on all the rest.

UM once had the Mechanical engineering program; Bozeman had the Electrical.

UM was supposed to get the Business programs, now MSU gets a big one, and Eastern has been looking to specialize in its business programs. UM has a school of education, Northern and Western turn out teachers. Its a nice duplication in a state that can't control its higher education costs, and so just shifts those costs to the students.

Montana kids pay the price, literally, because the Regents "can't say no, or what, or why."

Each state fiddles with its distribution of programs. Washington State has an interesting distribution of technical programs between UW and WSU.

 

[bobadams]

Royce Engstrom is bad for business. He's socially retarded and he needs to go. He has no skills that a CEO needs. This university needs a sales guy like Wayne Hogan in charge.

 

[HighLineGRIZ]

Couple points:

Anyone who thinks that declining enrollment isn't a problem needs to do some research on how those numbers effect all phases of our University, including the Athletic Department. More importantly, it effects the funding our University receives.

Montana will always be a Liberal Arts college. There is nothing that will ever change that nor should it. If a kid wants to be an Architect or Engineer, they go to MSU. If they want to be an Economist or a Pharmacist you go to UM.

I would like to see UM de-emphasis programs that don't generate good job placement numbers and increase focus on programs that we compete well in (eg: Business, Accounting, Law, Econ, Journalism, Math, Sciences) and expand focus on programs that we should try to fill educational demands for such as Computer Science, IT, Pre-Med.

BigKid hit the nail on the head and I've heard this same thing with other parents. It is really disappointing to hear and something we need to improve on. It's clear that these efforts are going to have some influence on enrollment numbers.

The obvious, is that the negative publicity of the rape cases from last year has had a negative effect on this University. As the U promotes a safe culture, things will improve. Time heals.

Lastly, I really haven't seen much from RE on working on any changes that address the above. They aren't easy changes that don't happen overnight, but other schools have/are doing it. Status quo and finger pointing isn't good leadership.

 

[Richard Cranium]

Fire his dumb ass! If he can't do it, get some one who can!