Digging In

VISION

To be the institution of opportunity and innovation.

NEVER STOP IMPROVING

Discussing Montana Tech’s Bold New Strategic Plan with Some of Its Architects

By Sherman Cahill

WHAT MAKES BUTTE DIFFERENT?

It’s a proud town, but there have been other proud towns. Every town thinks the road starts and stops a few feet outside their city limits. But it might be fair to say that Butte’s got more pride than most and comes by it honestly, too, having provided the lion’s share of the copper that wired America for electricity and enabled us to stop sitting around in chilly, candle-lit gloom.

Even with that, however, there’s something extraordinary about Butte’s pride. Here’s an illustrative example.

In the 1980s, as the town’s economic prospects looked worse than they ever had before in the town’s 120-year history, the Butte Chamber of Commerce considered the question of just how to save the city from what might have seemed insurmountable odds. They hit on a plan that, to me, exemplifies Butte’s chutzpah—the kind of sheer temerity, really, that has saved it from becoming another fading industrial town.

They printed thousands and thousands of bumper stickers.

Those stickers read, with a kind of defiant dignity, “Butte, America.”

You see, Butte, America is now—and always has been—a place full of Determined Doers.

“Determined Doers” shows up in number three on Montana Technological University’s new list of values, a part of their new overall strategic plan: “We are ‘Determined Doers.’ Through collaboration, resolve, and fierce determination, we value getting things done.”

I think that simple, consonant phrase does describe Butte— and Montana Tech—and what makes them both so cussedly, tenaciously exceptional.

Many of us Butte rats like to wax poetic about Butte. The scenery is drop-dead gorgeous, the opportunities for hiking, fishing, and camping are numerous, and, besides that, it’s got a 90-foot virgin mother watching over it from on high! My friend Brian calls it the “Holy City,” and when the whole glittering mess of it is lit up at night, you could see yourself starting to wonder if there isn’t something, well, divine about the place after all. But the truth, somehow both more and less romantic at the same time, is that for all its lovely physical attributes, the thing that makes Montana Tech and Butte what they are are their people.

Determined people that Do great things.

Montana Technological University’s new strategic plan is a broad set of initiatives aimed at achieving the University’s vision to “be the institution of opportunity and innovation,” in support of which the planning team set three goals: to empower student success however possible, to provide programs of distinction, and to maintain a healthy and vibrant campus ecosystem. In every case, they knew, it would take Determined Doers.

I found myself wondering whether I was a Determined Doer. I thought probably not, because would a Determined Doer always wait until all his dishes were dirty to wash them? Sadly, I suspect not.

But then, I didn’t attend Montana Tech, to my great and everlasting shame.

Montana Tech has always provided the kinds of hands-on, experiential learning you truly can’t get anywhere else. The result has always been the kinds of students that such education fosters: leaders, innovators, scientists, nurses, people wellequipped to navigate the cutting edge of science and technology.

To put it another way, it has always produced the kinds of people who probably wash their dishes after every meal. Maybe they even take them out of the cupboard and wash them once in the late afternoon for good measure.

DETERMINED PEOPLE THAT DO GREAT THINGS.

In a sense, the new Strategic Plan itself is the result of some Determined Doing. For one thing, the plan was conceived and developed during a global pandemic, even as the school managed to provide its high standard of hands-on, in-person learning while implementing sweeping, safe, and effective safety protocols.

To Janet Coe, Director of the Nursing Simulation Program at Montana Tech, those accomplishments, achieved during a difficult time, just demonstrate Butte’s grit. “There is a lot to be excited for when thinking of Montana Tech’s future,” she said. “A look at the successes that occurred at Tech during the pandemic gives a wide lens for future success.”

The nursing program wasn’t the least of those successes. “During the pandemic, the nursing department implemented an expansion plan, and by fall of 2022, the program will have grown enrollment by 50%.”

Not bad, not bad at all. Nor is that the only big thing in the works for Tech’s nursing students. As Coe pointed out, “Construction of the new Lesar Family Nursing Simulation Center began during the pandemic and will open this Spring. The Montana Tech Nursing Department received a $7 million dollar donation from Dave and Sherry Lesar and is now proud to be known as the Sherry Lesar School of Nursing. All of this occurred,” she added, “while responding to a pandemic and never losing sight of the future.”

I explained to Janet that she might not have realized it, or maybe she was just being polite, but that she was talking to a genuine moron, the kind of guy who lets his dirty dishes pile up, and that she’d better explain what nursing simulation was in a way I could understand.

She patiently explained that eight years ago, Montana Tech’s nursing program began to utilize simulation, or “the creation of a clinical situation or event that allows students to be immersed in a situation in order to practice skills, apply knowledge and develop decision making, critical thinking and clinical judgment in a riskfree environment. Each simulation uses a variety of modalities

NUCOR WEEK

Nucor is the nation’s largest producer of steel and steel products, and Montana Tech is grateful to partner with them for the yearly tradition of Nucor Week.

Nucor Week is a powerful asset for Montana Tech students, allowing them to get advice on their résumés from actual employers and meet recruiters, industry insiders, and professionals—and demonstrate their knowledge to them. Then, over two days, they get the chance to interview with recruiters for intern and full-time positions in fields like metallurgy, safety, and mechanical and electrical engineering. Landing a job like that either right after or while still in college is a big leg-up and typifies the Montana Tech advantage: more experience, more community, more connections.

such as high-fidelity manikins, standardized patients, role-playing, or computer-based/virtual programs to create realistic situations for students to practice.”

She’s seen extremely positive results in that time, saying that “students have responded with very positive feedback and often ask if more simulation can be offered. In my opinion, this feedback is a testament to the dedication of the faculty and the recognition by the students that simulation is valuable to their learning and professional role development.”

Now, with the Lesar Family Nursing Simulation Center, which will offer “four mock hospital rooms, each with corresponding debriefing rooms, two control rooms, a telehealth room, a medication room, and a nurse’s station,” the nursing program will continue to “provide the opportunity to increase the realism of clinical settings for the students and increase the quality of simulation offered.” The bottom line, as she said, is that the Center will “give our students an edge as they move from ‘practice’ to real-life nursing.”

In nursing, as in mining, or any of the other degrees and subjects offered by Montana Tech, providing hands-on, applied, and experiential learning is paramount. Once again, Montana Tech’s list of values sums it up better than I could when it says such education “is in our DNA; it’s what we’re about!”

When Montana Tech opened its doors in 1900, it had one building and two degrees. The first, as you can well imagine, was Mining Engineering. The second was Electrical Engineering, and this pioneering set of courses appeared in the wilds of southwestern Montana a mere 18 years after a university in Germany was the first to offer classes in the subject.

Now, over a hundred years later, Montana Technological University students are still studying electrical engineering right on the sharpest bit of the cutting edge, due in part to two of the coolest pieces of technology on campus and a very fruitful partnership with Schweitzer Engineering Laboratory (SEL) and NorthWestern Energy. These partnerships started because a couple of pretty impressive employers discovered that Montana Tech students made pretty impressive employees.

According to Department Head and Professor of Electrical Engineering Bryce Hill, “the initial relationship with both companies started with them hiring our graduates at both the undergraduate and graduate level. They have been impressed with the quality of our graduates. NorthWestern was already established in Butte and so the relationship was quite natural for us to foster. SEL, though they’re based in Washington, eventually founded a field office in Butte specifically because of this relationship.”

The result is the state-of-the-art Schweitzer Engineering Laboratory Power Systems Labs and the NorthWestern Energy Relay labs, constructed with the help of generous donations from the companies themselves, both of which allow for safe, applied, handson learning in controlled environments.

THE CLARK FORK WATERSHED EDUCATION PROGRAM (CFWEP)

What began as a small but ambitious project at Butte High School has now become an important non-profit serving thousands of folks, from students and learners of every age to teachers to communities.

In addition to a wonderful five-day program exploring watershed science, CFWEP encourages the study of STEM, even sometimes inspiring students to take up career fields in biology, restoration, or ecology.

Now headquartered on the Montana Tech campus, where it can serve students all over the State, CFWEP continues to inspire science literacy and a love of the abundant natural splendor we are so privileged to enjoy here in the west.

Montana Tech’s Electrical Engineering students have had an edge in the job market for over 120 years. Now, with these cutting-edge labs, they’ll enter a workforce already armed with crucial real-world experience that is very difficult to get anywhere else. Best of all, they’ll have played with some very cool tech.

Next, I spoke to Associate Professor Dawn Atkinson, department head of the Writing Program. I was careful not to misspell anything too egregiously in any emails to her.

My first question—what she likes best about Butte—was an admittedly hackneyed question, but she gave me an appropriately writerly response when she said that, in addition to the landscape and the history, a “writer can get quite a bit of work done on snowy winter nights.” It sounded like I was meeting another Determined Doer.

“The value that Montana Tech places on experiential learning, which is also emphasized in its strategic plan, can be seen throughout the community,” she replied. “Montana Tech is a place of opportunity for faculty, staff, and students, and this ethos really does inject vibrancy into the community in any number of ways. The institution draws innovators from Montana, the rest of the United States, and around the world who bring diverse backgrounds, customs, languages, and worldviews to Butte.”

Atkinson brought up another vital part of Montana Tech’s strategic plan that just happens to be a deeply rooted connection to Butte’s past and future. The “richest hill on earth” has always been a profoundly and proudly diverse place where mining safety signs were printed in dozens of languages to accommodate workers from all over the globe.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH

As you can imagine, Dr. Katie Hailer, Department Head of Chemistry and Geochemistry and Professor of Organic Chemistry, knows a little something about research.

And you can bet her students do too.

“Nearly all majors at Tech require 2–3 semesters of some form of research prior to graduation. This allows undergraduate students to take what they have learned in the classroom and apply it to designing and implementing research projects in the laboratory. In addition to this requirement, Tech has committed funding for students to work on undergraduate research.”

Dr. Hailer pointed out that, unlike at many other institutions, undergraduates at Montana Tech begin “recruiting undergraduates to work on research as early as their freshman year and have a specific funding program for new research students with 30 credits or less (called the RAMP program).”

With the new strategic plan in place and continued funding secured, the future of bold, exciting undergraduate research at Montana Tech looks exceptionally bright.

BLACK BUTTE COPPER

Another exciting development at Montana Tech is a new partnership between Black Butte Copper and Tech’s Highlands College. Through the new program, employees of Black Butte Copper will have the chance to receive an associate’s degree or certificate from Montana Tech.

Michelle Morley, Director of Workplace Development, explained why that is such a good thing for Tech, saying that, besides ensuring that Highlands College is a “premier regional center for workforce development and workforce-ready students, through entrylevel, continuing education and reskilling opportunities designed to meet industry demands,” the partnership also can “increase the number of credentialed workers in the State, increase and diversify enrollment, and address accessibility issues by offering a program that utilizes alternative delivery methods, scheduling, and on-site training for placebound adult learners.”

The partnership between Black Butte Copper, with its commitment to environmental protection and a safe, clean approach to mining, and Montana Tech, an institution that has been educating world-class miners for more than a century, seems like a match made in mining heaven.

MY FAVORITE THING, SHE SAID EARNESTLY, “IS THE BRIGHT YOUNG MINDS THAT WALK IN AND OUT OF OUR DOORS, AND THE OPPORTUNITIES THEY HAVE IN THE FUTURE.

— Interim Dean VanDaveer

Montana Tech’s strategic plan has been designed with this dedication to diversity and inclusion in mind, to make sure every student is treated fairly and equitably, that every person on campus feels safe and valued.

In my email to her, I closed by asking something, one writer and book lover to another: “I know the kids love Harry Potter, so do you think it’d be a good idea somewhere in this article to say that Montana Tech is a lot like Hogwarts?”

“I’m not sure about that one,” she wrote back, all business like a real Determined Doer. “I think students are attracted to Montana Tech because the institution exhibits sheer drive and can offer them opportunities that they may not get elsewhere. With a low instructor-to-student ratio, affordable tuition, access to world-class technology, hands-on learning experiences, and faculty and staff mentors who are invested in student success, students can truly experience all the wonderful things about higher education in a safe and welcoming environment.”

I can’t help thinking Professor Atkinson sounds like she’s probably House Ravenclaw to me.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s a nationwide shortage of labor. Thankfully, Karen VanDaveer and Highlands College are here to save the day.

Lisa Wareham Photography

No, really. Here are some downright shocking statistics for you to prove the point. Out of the Highlands College graduates from May of 2020, a truly amazing 93.4% of students were placed in jobs with a median salary of $60,000. Now, that’s something of which to be justifiably proud.

Interim Dean VanDaveer, the interim dean of Highlands College as well as the Director of the Nursing program for 33 years, is proud of the accomplishments of Highlands College alumni.

“My favorite thing,” she said earnestly, “is the bright young minds that walk in and out of our doors, and the opportunities they have in the future. And my favorite thing about Butte,” she added, “is the honest, hard-working, proud people of our community.”

Once again, someone has made clear that Butte and Montana Tech are one and the same in many ways. To use a sailing metaphor in a mining town—surely some kind of cardinal sin—a rising tide floats all boats.

“The strategic plan was the result of administration, faculty, and staff working together. It represents the values of Montana Technological University and emphasizes our special focus designation and STEM education.”

Interim Dean VanDaveer is such an impressive, business-like person that she veritably buzzes, and before she was off to another engagement, she more or less summed up this whole story for me in one line: “We are Butte, America! We can never stop changing and improving!”

The last person I was going to talk to was Matt Stepan, Director of Athletics and onetime linebacker for the Orediggers. As a football lover, I had saved the best for last. But before we got down to the business of talking strategic plans, I needed to do a little creative accounting.

“Gimme the inside scoop before I call my bookie: bet everything on the Orediggers next season, right?” I asked, glancing left and right to make sure no one was going to try and get in on my hot tip.

“It’s time to go all-in on Oredigger athletics,” he said without missing a beat. “The temperature is rising rapidly, and eruption is imminent.”

Matt Stepan has a deep personal connection to athletics at Montana Tech. Besides having been a hell of a ballplayer himself, he admits that one of his “most gratifying accomplishments is being part of a legacy of Montana Tech. My dad, Ed Stepan, was a student-athlete at Montana Tech, and I was honored to follow in his footsteps on and off the field. Aside from being a father and a husband, representing this great institution as a member of this great city is what makes me the most proud.”

It also just so happens that, as Stepan observed, “Montana Tech Athletics go as Butte goes. The support we receive here is unmatched by any of our peers. If our athletes are competing hard and being positive members of our local community, Butte will always support—win or lose.

“But you’re going to win, right? I just made a call...”

“Oh yeah. We’re going to win.”

How will the new strategic plan bear on athletics? Well, there’s more overlap there than you might think.

As Stepan pointed out, “the pillars identified in our new strategic plan closely match the values we hold within athletics. It is our mission in Digger Athletics that we can and will have championship-level teams while recruiting the smartest student-athletes in the area. This is not the typical correlation, and we are proud to make this our foundation.”

Stepan closed with some very sage words when I asked him how the strategic plan will make Montana Tech stand out. “Our strategic plan won’t set us apart from anyone. It’s the execution of the plan that will make the difference. It will take an all-in approach from our campus community and alumni alike to reach the levels we are capable of getting to. I’m excited to be a part of this chapter of Montana Tech’s history.”

The other day, while driving on campus, I saw a bumper sticker. Weathered, yes, frayed, bleached pale by the sun, it nevertheless clearly read “Butte, America” in the kind of thick lettering favored in the late 1970s. I don’t know if it had clung on to that battered Ford truck that long. It didn’t seem possible.

But then, Butte always has seemed a little like a miracle to me.

RESTORATION

What better place than Butte, Montana, and Montana Tech to be on the vanguard of the burgeoning study of restoration? Dr. Robert Pal, Director of Restoration, pointed out that Butte is the “poster child” for both “human-created environmental problems” and “successful clean-up projects.”

In just the past five years, Montana Tech has offered a Restoration Certificate, open for all majors and to students pursuing both their BS and their MS. In 2020, Montana Tech began offering a Master’s Program in Ecological Restoration. To date, 13 students have been accepted into the prestigious program.

Montana Tech’s new strategic plan means that the Restoration program at Montana Tech will get plenty of support going forward. As Dr. Pal observed, “One of the goals of the new strategic plan at Montana Technological University is to put more emphasis on Programs of Distinction. The Restoration Program at our University is one such program. Restoration is also a highly interdisciplinary science, creating a bridge between and among different programs at Montana Tech, ensuring long-term collaboration among departments, faculty, and students.”

VALUES

Students are the reason we exist.

They are at the heart of all we do, and our commitment to providing them a transformational experience is unparalleled. Diversity, equity, and inclusion are part of who we are. People are our most important commodity, and we are steadfast in providing a fair and equitable community where all are valued. We are “Determined Doers.”

Through collaboration, resolve, and fierce determination we value getting things done.

Hands-on, applied, and experiential learning is in our DNA; it’s what we’re about! We provide a supportive and dynamic environment to ensure this is evident in all we do We embrace innovation, creativity, and forward-thinking. We strive to create an environment where all will flourish.

We are one community devoted to excellence.

Lisa Wareham Photography