ELGREN HITS THE GROUND RUNNING
Provost and Executive Vice Chancellor Tim Elgren joined Montana Tech on July 15, 2024, and says a theme emerged in his early days on campus: nonstop meetings.
“It’s been a great few weeks getting to know folks, and an introduction to the University,” Elgren said. “Now that students and faculty are back on campus, it has been exciting to meet them and share their excitement for being at Montana Tech.”
Elgren is in the process of meeting with each department. “I ask them, ‘What are you most proud of in your graduates and in your programs?’” Elgren said. “For me that gives me talking points when I’m talking to others. It shares their authentic voices and experiences.”
Elgren then asks what the educational touchpoints are in the different programs that led to these outcomes they are most proud of.
“That gives me an idea of what the components of the curriculum are and the educational experiences that they really believe are having the highest impact,” Elgren said. “We assess these things and think about how to build out measures to demonstrate our success and identify areas of opportunities to grow and strengthen.”
Elgren says the third thing he asks faculty and staff is to describe their vision for their department and what will be required to realize that vision.
“That’s the full-time job right now,” Elgren said. “The job of the provost is to oversee all academic affairs and enrollment management. Enrollment management isn’t just admissions, it’s also keenly focused on student success. It’s one of our top strategic priorities for our institution. That’s a broad charge .”
Enrollment management is tasked not only with marketing, branding, and strategy to attract new students, but also how to retain them. This involves a number of support programs, initiatives, and facilities. So far, Elgren has been impressed and encouraged by the campus environment.
“All of these things are built around a tremendous staff and faculty who are deeply committed to student success,” Elgren said. “Our goals also involve helping them grow as professionals to build capacities across campus.”
Elgren hopes to build on the work done during last year’s accreditation process, where a tremendous amount of data was collected, submitted, and acted upon to be accredited for another seven years.
“We have a robust process for collecting student success and admissions data,” Elgren said. “What we can improve is how those data are used to inform decision making and then ultimately not having that be a process that leads to a report that sits on a shelf, but instead becomes an active framework for addressing those things. We want to create a system of continuous improvement. That’s my goal, to start to create a process that uses our strengths in data collection and starts to ask better questions about how we can improve the student experience.”
When asked about student success, he says one conversation stands out. “We had 170 employers coming to our Career Fair this fall. In a meeting with the engineering department chairs, I asked them to encourage their students to attend. One chair responded by saying that they have a hard time getting our seniors to attend because they already have jobs. That’s extraordinary!”