DILLON — The Montana Board of Regents met at the University of Montana Western in Dillon to address many topics, including declining enrollment.
Numbers show college enrollment has been steadily decreasing nationwide over the past six years.
“We have more skilled workers now than ever. In fact, we need more people with some sort of post-secondary education,” said Commissioner of Higher Learning Clayton Christian.
The board also focused on funding for buildings and infrastructure at its 12 institutions around the state.
“There’s literally hundreds of projects on the list that get pared down to something reasonable that we can present to the governor’s budget office this summer, then ultimately the legislature next session,” said Christian.
Another important issue the board addressed was seeking funding to upgrade its security to buildings at all of Montana’s campuses.
“Replacing all the locks across the university system to keycards so we can better control access, better for students and also helps us be a lot more secure -- for instance when we have to lock facilities down or those type of things,” said Christian.
The next Regents meeting will be in May at Montana State University-Northern in Havre.
