This story was originally published by Daily Montanan: URL: https://dailymontanan.com This story has not been altered or edited. (C) Daily Montanan. Licensed for re-distribution through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. ------------ Gianforte Family Foundation to give $50M to MSU – Daily Montanan ['Keila Szpaller', 'More From Author', '- March'] Date: 2022-03-08 00:00:00 A $50 million gift from the Gianforte Family Foundation to Montana State University is on the Board of Regents agenda this week as an information item, and the campus is taking input on naming a new computer sciences building Gianforte Hall prior to submitting a proposal for the Regents to consider in May. Gov. Greg Gianforte and First Lady Susan Gianforte are the lead trustees of the Gianforte Family Foundation, which focuses in part on education, entrepreneurship and job creation. The foundation gave $8 million to MSU in 2016 for its Gianforte School of Computing, and MSU said the current gift is a continuation of the family’s support for studies such as cybersecurity and electrical and computer engineering. “The Gianforte Family Foundation has demonstrated tangible commitment to furthering the interests of students and education at Montana State University in a consistent manner,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado in a statement from the campus. “This gift will continue that commitment in an unprecedented way, allowing us to dramatically expand our computer science and complementary interdisciplinary offerings, putting Montana State on the map as one of the premier computer science universities in the nation.” The Gianforte Family foundation estimated it has given more than $39 million since its inception in 2004 to support “Montana colleges and universities, K-12 schools and programming, and post-secondary trades and technology scholarships.” In statements provided by MSU, Cruzado and Susan Gianforte expressed enthusiasm to be able to drive forward computer sciences, a growing field. In interviews with the Daily Montanan, student leaders said they appreciated the generosity of the gift but also raised concerns over putting the Gianforte name on an MSU building. A political analyst outside the Montana University System lauded the generosity but said the donation raises a question about the type of public system the state supports and who gets to decide. And a computer science lecturer at the University of Montana said the flagship in Missoula is doing notable research in the field, but it could use funds to trade out old desks for new tables. “I love that they’re giving money (to computer science),” said Trish Duce, who teaches in the computer science department at UM. “I would like to see it distributed a little more fairly across Montana.” *** MSU touted the donation as tied for the second largest in the history of the Bozeman campus and as one that will help the campus support students in a flourishing field that’s important to the Gianfortes, who earned their fortune in it. Prior to serving in public office, the Republican governor founded RightNow Technologies in Bozeman and in 2012 sold it to Oracle for roughly $1.8 billion. In its news release, the campus noted employment in the field of computer science is projected to grow 22 percent from 2020 to 2030, citing U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, and average salaries last year jumped 7 percent to $72,000, citing the National Association of Colleges and Employers. “We have been very pleased to support Montana State University’s computer science program for over two decades,” said Susan Gianforte, who has a master’s in mechanical engineering from U.C. Berkeley and also worked at RightNow Technologies, in a statement. “The school’s staff and leadership have grown it to the point where a building is the logical next step, and we couldn’t be happier to help make that happen. This will provide so many opportunities for students to learn, thrive and be prepared to enter the workforce of today and tomorrow.” The information item on the Board’s agenda said the Gianforte donations have helped MSU boost enrollments, award scholarships and “provide competitive start-up packages to six new faculty members.” “A new building for the Gianforte School of Computing at Montana State University will elevate the experience of students pursuing computer science degrees and complementary degrees in computing-related fields such as cybersecurity, optics and photonics, electrical engineering, and creative industries,” it said. “The new building will also enhance Montana State University efforts to retain and graduate larger numbers of students through its state-of-the-art classrooms, modern computer labs, student research facilities and interdisciplinary collaborative spaces.” *** In 2016, the Regents unanimously approved the $8 million naming gift, but former Regent Paul Tuss noted at the time that the Board had received many comments from people who said they opposed the foundation’s support for organizations that oppose homosexuality, and some people, including Democrats, questioned the gift during Gianforte’s campaign for governor. “I also acknowledge the good that this gift will bring to future generations of students at MSU-Bozeman,” Tuss said at the time. “I believe it would be inappropriate to make a decision to reject this because of politics or philosophical differences. I also think it is inappropriate to not acknowledge the great number of people concerned about the timing of this donation, and other concerns brought to attention by the LGBT community.” In an interview about the current proposal, Sen. Jack Pearlman, an MSU junior majoring in political science and business management, said on the balance, he’s grateful for the gift. He said it will go a long way to support students, women in particular, in the field. “People are very excited, and we want the school to grow, and their generosity is not lost on anyone,” said Pearlman, with the Associated Students of MSU. “But I think that I feel like it’s a struggle because the school’s mission is inclusivity, and I think that’s something Montana State already kind of struggles with.” The campus isn’t as diverse as it could be, he said, and he doesn’t want to take any steps that would alienate a more diverse population. But he also said support for growing programs like computer science is “paramount” to the student experience. “I would say that while it’s generally very generous of the Gianforte foundation to donate the money, the only real problem I find with that is maybe the naming of the building,” Pearlman said. “But you know, it is their generous money that allows the building to be built.” *** The donation raises a different question for Tim0thy Lehman, a history and political science professor at Rocky Mountain College, a private college. He said historically, the Montana University System has opted to have a more decentralized system with strong satellite campuses. “A college education anywhere is an expensive business, and tuition just doesn’t pay all of the bills,” Lehman said. “So we need generous people like Greg Gianforte, so I am grateful for that, to see the money going to higher education. It’s his money, not mine; he is entitled to spend it that way.” He said he doesn’t want to diminish the generosity of Gianforte or other donors, in particular because Rocky Mountain College itself is a private institution indebted to donors, and he’s thankful the governor himself has given a commencement speech there. But he said some of the smaller MUS campuses are being left behind, and he said the state needs to decide if it wants to strengthen the two flagships or the system as a whole with more focus on the smaller schools. Some of his colleagues at MSU-Billings, for example, aren’t getting the kind of funding the “mother campus” is getting, he said, and “some of them feel quite ignored.” “The other campuses are sometimes in an existential struggle, and I’d like to see more attention paid to them,” Lehman said. “It’s a philosophical conversation, but it’s unfortunate to see it made by donors instead of a thoughtful conversation by the citizens of the state.” Generally, though, he said it’s common for donors to try to shape the direction of a campus, and for the Gianfortes, that direction is computer science. He said he believes such donations could lend at least some political influence as well, although the governor isn’t actively campaigning for office this year. “I’m not saying that it’s designed to turn them all into Republicans, but it might build some favor,” Lehman said. *** The Gianforte Family Foundation website counts more than $97 million given since 2005, including $30 million to recipients in the Bozeman area and $38 million to ones in Montana overall. A specific amount to UM in Missoula wasn’t available in time for this story from the Gianforte foundation or from the UM Foundation, the latter which didn’t disclose the amount, citing donor privacy. UM’s website notes that along with the National Science Foundation, the Gianforte Family Foundation is funding a research project led by computer science faculty member Yolanda Reimer at the University of Montana to grow computer science curriculum, diversity and teacher preparedness in high schools across Montana. The website doesn’t note a dollar amount. Duce, the UM lecturer, said the computer science department in Missoula has topnotch faculty and researchers, although it’s also down a couple of positions and hiring to fill them. UM’s website notes research projects include glacier modeling in Greenland, featured on the cover of Science Magazine in 2019, for instance. Duce said she herself will teach a class with 90 students who will sit in small desks that aren’t ideal for computer work, and she’d like to be able to have tables and a more modern classroom. “I don’t have appropriate classrooms,” said Duce, who has taught at UM for some seven years. “It’s just tough. We’re doing the best we can with what we have.” On the other hand, she said she’s glad money is going to computer science in general given the need. She said the field should grow no matter the campus, and she’s an advocate that all students, no matter their major, take a computer science class: “I can talk for days about why computer science is a great field to study regardless of what they’re passionate about.” [END] [1] Url: https://dailymontanan.com/2022/03/08/gianforte-family-foundation-to-give-50m-to-msu/ Content is licensed through Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/montanan/