The Bitterroot College Program of The University of Montana
Meeting Minutes: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
The Steering Committee of the Bitterroot College Program (BCP) of The University of Montana met on
Tuesday, March 23, 2010 from 3 – 5 PM at the Ravalli County Commissioners Meeting Room in
Hamilton. The meeting was chaired by John Robinson. In alphabetical order, committee attendees
included: Sharon Alexander, Katelyn Andersen, Royce Engstrom, Patricia Meakin, Kimberley Mills, Deb
Morris, John Robinson, Dixie Stark, and Lynn Stocking. Committees members excused were Tim Bronk,
Chuck Jensen, Carlotta Grandstaff, Mary Moe, and Rick O’Brien. Also present was BCP Interim Director
Victoria Clark.
Members of the public in attendance included Pat Connell.
Members of the press in attendance included one reporter from the Ravalli Republic (Jeff Schmerker).
Taking meeting minutes was John Meakin.
The meeting opened with Chair Robinson calling the committee to order and conducting roll call,
followed by Robinson making a short introductory speech with respect to the BCP’s growth and its
current and projected need for dedicated and sufficient funding; the full text of Chair Robinson’s speech:
Pep talks through the course of a basketball season for the most part deal with one game at a
time. When your team gets to the final playoffs pep talks have to look at the big picture.
The fact the Bitterroot College Program is not only up and running, but has surpassed many of
the goals we aimed for when we started, has got us through the season and into the playoffs. Now,
we need to look at the big picture.
Right now we are a well-treated step child of The University of Montana. We are not a
department, and money wise we are existing on the good will of various departments who
contributed from their budgets to get us started. We express our humble appreciation to all of those
departments who made the sacrifice to get the Bitterroot College started. The big picture is what
kind of an institution are we going to become.
I get messages from our legislators about the state being $500 million in the hole. I can assure
you if the state is in the hole the slightest amount, education will suffer a severe economic blow. A
number of the K-12 school districts in this valley are seeking major additional support from their
district's taxpayers, not in an effort to expand their educational opportunities, but merely to
maintain their present situation.
Montana received a two million dollar grant to study and construct a viable two year higher
education system. I'm sure that is ongoing, and in the future it will bear fruit. Right now the
Bitterroot College is expanding its enrolment at a rapid rate. More students require more money.
Victoria and I met with the budget committee, and we received a substantially increased budget for
next year. We appreciate the effort the University has made to give us more money. It will allow us
to expand, but we don't believe it will cover what we anticipate in increased enrolment.
You know you can lead a horse to water but you can't make him drink. However if you lead a
horse to the water trough and there is no water he can't drink. We don't have the possibility of
receiving more money from the state legislature until the last half of 2011, and we may not receive
any then. What we have started here is a substantial educational project. It should not fail for lack
of funds. This committee needs to put their money hats on, and start the ball rolling to raise money
The Bitterroot College Program of The University of Montana
Meeting Minutes: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Page 2 of 4
for this institution. If our growth continues at anywhere near the rate it's been growing, we will
need another $100,000 to satisfy the educational needs of the students next fall.
I was waiting to speak to Victoria last week, and there was a young lady waiting also. She had
the summer schedule in her hand, and because I used to be a lawyer, from just a quick glance I
could see she had circled classes for a full load. I asked her if she planned on going to summer
school. She said she was. I asked her what she planned to take, and she said, a full load. She only
wanted to see Victoria about which of the writing courses she should take.
On an irregular basis I stop in at the school. I don't think I have ever stopped when there wasn't
someone seeking to become enrolled in the college. Folks, we have a tiger by the tail, and if we are
going to tame the tiger we will have to raise a lot of money.
I would like to take credit for this next bit of news I have to pass on, but the credit has to go to
my wife, Dorothy. Like most couples who have been married for fifty years we have developed some
set habits. One of those habits is reading the paper. I read all the big articles, and Dorothy reads the
pages with the twenty or thirty little articles.
She pointed out the Allegra FootPrint Fund article, where they are giving up to $1000 dollars of
printing to needy non-profit organizations. Dorothy said, "Don't you think your college could use a
$1000 worth of printing." Of course we could.
I went to the Allegra office and picked up an application. Between Victoria and myself we have
submitted an application to be considered by Allegra. They will notify us in writing by the first of
April if our request has been granted. We may or may not receive the grant, but we have made the
effort. I encourage all of you to read those little articles in the local paper.
We are going to discuss this more fully when we talk about funding but I want to give you a little
head start. The Department of Labor has $125 million grant money that they are looking to give to
educational units. I have looked over the proposal and I think we would qualify. The grants come in
million dollar increments. I think if we can get a grant writer from the University and with the help
of Patricia Meakin we could get the application submitted by the due date of April 29. A million
dollar grant would put the Bitterroot College on the educational map with a big star next to our
name. We will talk about it later in the meeting.
When I was a child back in Chicago, on occasion my mother would say to me, "We need a loaf of
bread. Get a dime from your father and go to the store." I'd walk into the living room and say,
"Mother says to give me a dime cause we need a loaf of bread." Father would always respond,
"Anybody can do it with money,” then he'd dip into his pocket and flip me a dime. We all need to
start looking for somebody to flip us a dime. Maybe the Department of Labor is the one who will flip
us the dime we need to get the loaf of bread.
Following his statement, Chair Robinson introduced Deborah Rogala, Ravalli County Fairgrounds
Director, who gave a brief presentation on the Fairground’s upcoming Glory Days event to be held July 2
thru 4 in celebration of an old fashion Independence Day weekend. Rogala hoped that the BCP might be
interested in having an activity or promotional booth at the multi-day event as a means of positive
community outreach. The committee responded affirmatively to Rogala’s invitation with Victoria Clark
stating that the BCP would make an effort to be part of the celebration.
Next, Chair Robinson asked for approval of the meeting minutes from February 23, 2010. Dixie Stark
noted that on page 3 of the minutes a reference to “Moss” needed to be changed to “ Maas.” The
minutes were then unanimously approved with the Maas correction duly noted.
The Bitterroot College Program of The University of Montana
Meeting Minutes: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Page 3 of 4
After the minutes’ vote, Chair Robinson gave the floor to Interim Director Victoria Clark for the
presentation of the Director’s Report. Clark’s report began with a breakdown of current operational
issues. Clark’s operational comments included: 1) enrollment update—13 courses underway with 141
duplicated students; Spring 2010 student attrition remained minimal to date; Summer 2010 courses
were now open for enrollment; at present 14 duplicated students had signed up for the six summer
courses (with one more summer course – Probability and Linear Math – still to be added); 2) new
student orientations—BCP new student orientations resumed in March, with five students having
attended each of the two March orientations; new evening orientations had been set for Tuesday, April
13 and May 11 and Wednesday, June 9, July 14, and August 11, with times from 6 to 9 pm; 3) Fall
2010—Lynn Stocking has been coming down to the BCP to conduct advising appointments in
preparation for the opening of Fall 2010 registration on April 7; Stocking’s willingness to take on the
advising task has been very much appreciated by Clark and the BCP students; Stocking and Clark have
been working on the BCP Fall 2010 course list, with a focus on providing MUS/UM general education
core requirement courses and health care fields’ pre-requisite courses (as over 40% of BCP students are
on a health care track); Clark is also looking to improve BCP faculty hiring procedures by having all
adjunct faculty contracts signed six weeks before classes begin; 4) faculty meeting—the first BCP faculty
meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday, March 30; Provost Engstrom will be in attendance; 5)
contracted training with Ravalli County Economic Development Authority (RCEDA)—RCEDA’s Building
Bitterroot Business series of Excel, QuickBooks, and Business classes have been attracting about 10
students apiece; RCEDA is pleased with the enrollment and is set to start a second series of classes
beginning the first week of May; 6) partnership with UM Continuing Education—CE has put together
another Lifelong Learning in the ‘Root series entitled Global Perspectives to run four consecutive
Wednesdays from 10 to 11:30 am starting April 21 and ending May 12; planning for FY2011
programming includes two Fall 2010 series and two Spring 2011 series, with likely series’ topics to
include local and regional history and more music appreciation; CE is working with the BCP to establish a
designated budget for future enrichment programming, allowing a means for the BCP to provide a range
of non-credit programming utilizing a full cost recovery budget model.
Clark then moved onto educational planning issues: 1) data analysis—current focus with Maas is to
increase participation in the online survey especially with respect to high school students; to date 464
individuals have taken the online survey, however, only 64 of these individuals have been of high school
age; a draft data analysis document from Maas is expected by the next steering committee meeting; 2)
community conversations—a conversation with local high school principals and counselors revealed
this group to be concerned with the permanence of the BCP, with school administrators not wanting to
put in time promoting and partnering with the BCP if the BCP wasn’t going to be in existence for long; a
conversation with small business representatives showed this group to be concerned with
understanding the adult education levy, understanding the school districts as adult education providers,
the need for general computer skills training for the local workforce, and creating a strong partnership
between college program planners and those involved in developing the emerging local economic
interest in tourism, recreation, destination, and retirement; with respect to community conversations in
Corvallis, Victor, and Darby, participation had been low with issues raised including college readiness,
college organization, and exploratory/general interest programming; upcoming conversations were
scheduled for Stevensville, Florence, and Lone Rock with conversations in Hamilton and Pinesdale still to
be scheduled.
Chair Robinson then recognized Clark to conclude her Director’s Report with an update on fiscal issues.
Clark briefly reviewed the current BCP financial statement and then asked Provost Engstrom to speak
The Bitterroot College Program of The University of Montana
Meeting Minutes: Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Page 4 of 4
with respect to BCP FY2011 budget projections. Engstrom began by making a statement with reference
to the concerns of local school district personnel over the longevity of the BCP. Engstrom articulated
that “We are here to stay; we are committed to the partnership to make this work.” He noted that
there must be an increase in students with higher education degrees and that it couldn’t be expected
that students only go to flagship institutions. Engstrom then turned to fiscal issues, relaying that for
FY2010 BCP’s expenses would total about $200,000. Planning for enrollment growth in FY2011,
Engstrom stated that the BCP’s FY2011 budget would be expanded to $250,000. Engstrom commented
that as the budget planning process moved forward it was important to plan with an eye to true costs
and to understand and quantify all the costs, direct and indirect, involved in operating the BCP. He
noted that the ultimate goal was to provide “opportunities for students in the Bitterroot to achieve 2 to
4 year degrees.”
Chair Robinson then recognized Kimberley Mills to provide the Student Issues Update. Mills said that
lately she had been receiving comments from students concerned about commuting to Missoula.
Suggestions Mills had for Interim Director Clark included creating a ride-share board, investigating the
possibility of a commuter bus, increasing online course offerings, and offering compressed courses.
Chair Robinson then introduced New Business—Discussion of FY2011 curricular objectives and funding.
Sharon Alexander and Patricia Meakin began by echoing Chair Robinson’s opening remarks, noting the
importance of diversifying revenue sources and not solely relying on state funds. Dixie Stark
commented that the BCP should look to the Department of Labor and the Department of Education for
collaborative granting opportunities with respect to education, training, workforce development, and
employment. The committee then generally discussed a pending Department of Labor grant worth $1
million in which workforce training in high demand and emerging industries was to be supported. The
committee was unsure as to whether or not the BCP was actually eligible to apply for the grant. The
committee voted unanimously to explore the possibility of applying for the DOL grant in question.
Chair Robinson then asked for public comment. Patrick Connell identified himself as a candidate for
state HD 87 seat. He noted that it would be helpful if the BCP’s financial statement included some
measure of results for dollars spent. He spoke about his interest in getting the word out about existing
distance education opportunities and in increasing distance education opportunities. Too, he thought
that the BCP might find support for technical programs via outreach to labor unions. Provost Engstrom
commented that part of the College Now! grant (MOA) was concerned with establishing and promoting
a virtual (online) community college.
Chair Robinson moved to adjourn the meeting, and all agreed. The meeting was adjourned at 4:50 PM.
Minutes subscribed by John Meakin (with Victoria Clark summarizing)