During May school elections, Bitterroot Valley voters passed a ballot initiative to establish a community college and create a special taxing district to pay for the college, and voted for seven valley residents to serve as the college's board of trustees.
Last week, the University of Montana told the Montana Board of Regents it wants to establish its own higher education center in Hamilton.
However, supporters and organizers of the Bitterroot Valley Community College are troubled by UM's proposal.
“The University of Montana says it wants to pursue what folks in the Bitterroot Valley want, and we just voted. What folks said they want is a locally controlled, locally accountable community college,” said Victoria Clark, a founding member of the Bitterroot Valley Community College Exploratory Committee, which is the entity that helped get the issue on the May ballot.
“Voters have expressed what they want and we don't know why UM is going forward with this idea of a higher education center. It really seems like the university is saying one thing and practicing another - and it seems disingenuous.”
Clark and a handful of community college supporters became concerned about the matter after traveling to the regents' meeting in Miles City last week and hearing UM officials describe the proposed center.
UM plans to offer a slate of certificate, associate and bachelor's degree programs, as well as college preparatory classes, dual-credit courses for high school students, adult basic education and other programs that are responsive to community and work force needs - and therein lies the rub.
“If you look at the list of what the Higher Education Center is purporting to offer, it lists everything a community college would do,” Clark said. “It's quite incredulous that UM says this is not a conflicting initiative.”
But in an interview this week with the Missoulian, Dennison said UM has no intention of offering duplicate services or competing with the community college offerings.
“This is not any kind of effort to interfere with what residents who support a community college want to do in Hamilton,” Dennison said. “They ought to do what they want. I don't live in Ravalli County, I don't pay taxes there, and it's not my place to be telling them what to do.
“But it is important for us - for the university - to follow through and provide educational services, and that's the purpose of a higher education center.”
Before a Bitterroot community college can be established, regents must first give the Montana Legislature a nonbinding recommendation regarding the startup. From there, the Legislature must give its stamp of approval and it must pass the governor's scrutiny.
Providing there are no more special sessions, lawmakers won't decide the community college's future until 2009, which is why UM is moving forward with its plans.
“They can't do anything for at least two years,” Dennison said. “We can do it now.”
UM has been working with the Hamilton school system to find out what programs can best serve the community, Dennison said. UM is currently offering laboratory technology courses, and more courses, such as English composition and mathematics, will likely be offered this summer, with more offerings come fall.
But degree programs won't be offered until UM's proposed plan is authorized by the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities, and approved by the regents. Dennison said he expects all those steps will be taken by this time next year.
To help move plans forward and develop course offerings, Dennison recently hired Frank Laurence, a Bitterroot resident and former member of the Bitterroot Valley Community College Exploratory Committee, to serve as interim director of the proposed higher education center. Laurence isn't yet on payroll, but has agreed to take on the task.
Clark is skeptical of UM's timing because the university has stepped forward with a plan only after efforts to create a Bitterroot Valley community college became high profile over the past year.
“People that were interested in bringing adult learning services have been in negotiations with UM since 2001, and no one ever entered into conversation with this sort of center or said this option was available,” Clark said. “The timing to push it through as soon as possible is quite suspicious, particularly when the push for the university all along has been to create a College of Technology extension in Hamilton; this is just a remake of that under the guise of a different title.”
Despite what's been reported and discussed at various meetings over the past year, UM never intended to build what some UM administrators and others were calling a “COT satellite,” Dennison said.
“We never did have in mind a branch campus,” he said, “that's not what it is.”
Unlike a COT, which offers two-year programs, a higher education center, Dennison explained, can offer full four-year degree programs and give UM the flexibility to offer a wide variety of education services.
A higher education center, Clark countered, offers courses at UM prices; a higher education center can't be forced to be responsive to the community it serves.
“Affordability is a big issue here,” Clark said, “and UM has always failed to understand that what made the community college so attractive to voters is because it has taxing authority - because of that, particularly with non-credit education courses - a community college can provide services at a price people can afford because it can tap into the adult education levy.”
By way of example, Clark points to other places in Montana, like the Dickinson Lifelong Learning Center in Missoula, which is subsidized by the adult education tax.
“A higher education center is a terrific idea for providing post-associate degree level and other credit services - once a community college is established,” Clark said. “However, as the university's plan is written right now, that's not the case.”
“It's a conflict and a competitor,” she said. “It duplicates services and it shows a lack of respect for the voters.
“It looks not so much like the issue is providing service, but that UM wants to control the provision of service - and that's disturbing.”
UM's proposal is still a year out before it comes back before the Board of Regents, said Lynn Hamilton, regents chairwoman.
When it does, hopefully UM will present a clear plan on how to pay for its proposed higher education center and identify the programs and courses it will deliver, she said. And hopefully it will reflect collaboration with the organizers of the Bitterroot Valley community college.
“I think this is an exciting time for higher education,” Hamilton said. “Nobody would argue the value of what higher education brings to a community and state.
“By working together, which is what the board has encouraged, I think the two initiatives can make some progress and identify the education needs in the area.
“There's a lot of opportunity out there - we just have figure out how we are going to deliver it and pay for it.”
Reporter Betsy Cohen can be reached at 523-5253 or at bcohen@missoulian.com
Two education plans
Time will tell how the two education efforts will play out, what the cost will be to students and what programs will be offered. Meanwhile, here's an update on what's happening with the Bitterroot Valley Community College and more information regarding UM's planned Higher Education Center.
Bitterroot Valley Community College:
The guiding force that brought the issue to voters has changed its name from the Bitterroot Valley Community College Exploratory Committee to the Bitterroot Valley Community College Steering Committee.
The steering committee will work until the college is legally finalized by the Legislature and is currently researching how to establish a foundation that can accept donations and help support the college.
The seven-person board of trustees-elect held their first meeting on Monday at the Hamilton Job Service. They will continue to meet at 7 p.m. on the third Monday of every month at various locations in Hamilton that have yet to be decided.
The trustees are Doug Bauer, Greg Seltzer, Patti Furniss, John Robinson, AnnaVee Brandborg, Jack Eggensperger and Deborah Rogala.
Over the next few months, the trustees will attend workshops and training on how to operate as a college board.
“We are just moving forward,” said Victoria Clark, a founding member of the Bitterroot Valley Community College Exploratory Committee. “There is no time to waste. We want everything in place by the time the Legislature meets. The steering committee will focus its efforts on the foundation, and we are looking to raise funds for a comprehensive needs assessment, establish an endowment fund and we are looking for funding to establish a library or media center, which is required for accreditation.
“We want to have things up and running by the time the Legislature gets on this.”
For more information about the college, go to www.bvcc-edu.org.
UM Higher Education Center in Hamilton:
Details of the center are still being worked out, but UM will not build a new structure to house the center, said UM President George Dennison. UM will lease space to house the new programming and decisions regarding course offerings will be made with input from Bitterroot Valley residents, local businesses and the Hamilton school system.
Faculty will be hired from within the Hamilton community and surrounding areas.
As outlined in the regents' agenda item last week, the center will offer UM degree programs currently available through the College of Technology, as well as all other colleges and schools of the university, as needs dictate. As appropriate through a higher education center, collaboration with other postsecondary institutions through site-sharing for the opportunity to offer course work or programs will become available.
UM is currently awaiting approval from the Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities to deliver course work to the new site, and will request the regents' authorization for the center no later than May 2008.
Betsy Cohen, Missoulian
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