A small change in policy outlining how Montana’s colleges and universities are given state money has Montana State University President Waded Cruzado worried about its impact on in-state enrollment in higher education.
The state Board of Regents, the governing body of higher education in Montana, approved a revision to the policy at a meeting in Dillon on Friday. The policy describes how the board distributes the lump sum of money it gets from the Montana Legislature each biennium to state campuses.
The policy said that the calculation used to divide state dollars factored in a campus’ three-year average of resident, full-time equivalent students as a “primary driver” in giving out that money. The language was revised to say that number will be considered in the calculation, but no longer the top driver.
Other drivers in the distribution of state dollars include the “cost of education, student to faculty ratios, and tuition and state appropriations per student in relation to peers.”
Cruzado said during the meeting that although the change is characterized as minor, it “muddies the waters” for campus leaders. She said that universities and colleges need “absolute clarity” from the board that recruiting and retaining resident students from Montana is important. She said if the calculation is irrespective of that, leaders get confused.
“And if we are not here to educate more Montanans, then we need to ask ourselves what we’re here for,” Cruzado said.
The language change is not the catalyst for policy change, but rather codifies how the board has already been calculating the distribution for the last few years. Cruzado said that MSU’s budget relies “heavily” on out-of-state student tuition as a result. Those students pay about three times as much as someone in-state. That’s an issue MSU has discussed before.
Montana University System operating budget metrics show that when looking at state dollars per full-time equivalent resident student, MSU got $7,886 per resident student in fiscal year 2020. The University of Montana in Missoula got $9,782 per resident student. Over the past five years, MSU has seen a 2% increase in resident student enrollment, while UM has seen a 25% decrease in resident student enrollment.
However, in overall state dollars, MSU was budgeted $70.9 million for fiscal year 2020 while UM received $59.8 million.
Karen Ogden, Montana University System spokesperson, said that resident student enrollment is only one factor among many in the formula, and that it evens out so MUS spends about the same amount of money per student across the whole university system.
“MSU-Bozeman has seen growth and (the Montana University System) will continue to make allocations that reflect that growth as aggressively as we can,” Ogden said.
Ogden declined to comment on Cruzado’s assertion that the approved policy change would affect recruitment and retention of resident students.
Cruzado said during the meeting that allocation of state dollars has changed since she first became MSU’s president. In 2010, the board required that MSU hand over $9 million — $3 million paid over three years — to UM because the Missoula flagship had 1,500 more students. However, MSU didn’t end up having to pay the full amount as the university raised it’s enrollment up over time.
UM President Seth Bodnar said during the meeting that resident student numbers should be calculated into state dollar allocations, but that they’re only one piece among others.
“I would also be remiss on behalf of some of the other campuses to not acknowledge that a pure resident (full-time equivalent) number is an important part of the picture,” Bodnar said. “But mission differentiation, what campuses are charged to do, is also an important part of the picture.”
Cruzado said she’s worried that the language change will only make MSU more dependent on out-of-state student tuition.
“One good day we’re going to open our eyes, and we’re going to be in a situation that I don’t want to be in,” Cruzado said.
