With this issue (Fall 2000) The Montana Professor completes its tenth year of publication. This is a significant milepost for such a novel publication. During the decade, TMP has become a dependable and important source of information and opinion about issues in higher education, and has provided those of us who have dedicated ourselves to careers as university teachers, scholars and researchers an opportunity to debate and explore important issues that affect our professional lives.
During the decade of our existence we have been privileged to publish articles and reviews from a large number of members of the MUS and not a few from institutions not part of the MUS. A recent tally showed the following:
Totals for the MUS: 129 authors, 117 articles and 122 reviews.
Other institutions represented by at least one author are: U. of Washington, National Center of Higher Education Management Systems, University of British Columbia, Mount Union College, Illinois State University, Gonzaga University, Central Washington University, University of Chicago, Colorado College, University of Missouri-Kansas City, Southwest Texas State University, National Association of Scholars, Rutgers University, North Dakota State College of Science, Texas A&M University, and Franklin College.
In addition to the academics we have published a variety of state government officials, and candidates for office including: Ron Marlenee (1), March Racicot (4), Pat Williams (1), Dorothy Bradley (1), Dave Lewis (3), John Hutchinson (1), Jeff Baker (2), Greg Jergeson (1), Jim McGarvey and Eric Feaver (1), H.S."Sonny" Hanson (1), Ray Peck (1), and Richard Crofts (1).
Something else that makes TMP unique among academic periodicals is that it is sent to all state legislators, the Governor's Office, the Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education, and the members of the Board of Regents. As a result, it provides faculty with the ability to affect the thinking of those who shape educational policy in this state.
The MP has come to serve as the voice of the faculty--and the de facto professional journal of the Montana University System. It provides the only real forum for the MUS professorate to discuss substantively issues internal to the system, for example; the ballot initiative to abolish the BOR and the CHE to which we devoted an entire issue, distance education in the MUS, cuts in our health benefits plan and, most recently, how faculty and the BOR understand tenure. The degree of acceptance and we have received is most gratifying and makes the editors eager to continue into a second decade.
From the beginning TMP has been funded by the Montana Federation of Teachers from dues collected from the organized campuses (UM, Western, Northern, Billings and the Vo-Techs). This funding has been given with no editorial strings attached. TMP has also been sent, free of charge, to instructors and administrators at non-unionized campuses, including not only Montana State University-Bozeman and Montana Tech-UM, but also the three private colleges (Rocky Mountain College, Carroll College and The University of Great Falls), and the three community colleges even though these eight campuses contributed nothing to TMP's funding. But now this generous and collegial arrangement ends with Vol. 11, No. 1 (Winter 2001). We are grateful to the MFT for its support in the past and disappointed that it cannot continue.
The members of the board have worked on a variety of ways to get the funding needed to continue our work. In the long term we feel it would be best to put the journal on a subscription basis. With enough subscriptions the yearly cost could be as little as $12.
But we need time to convert to a subscription basis. Right now we plan is to ask the administration at each unit of the MUS and the three private colleges to subsidize temporarily the costs of sending TMP to their campus. This would make the sum proportionate to the size of the unit, which seems appropriate. The MP offers a significant service to each unit and its faculty and administration as well as a service to the MUS and the state of Montana.
The MP does not cost a lot to produce. None of the editors or board members receive any money for their efforts. We do pay the cost of a hotel room for the once a year editorial board meeting but they pay for their travel expenses including meals. TMP owns none of the equipment used, it is all owned by the individual editors or board members. We do of course have to pay for formatting, printing, and mailing TMP.
We encourage our readers to discuss this matter with the following board members on their campus.
Richard Walton (Philosophy)
243-6234 <rewalt@mssl.uswest.net>
Jeff Gritzner (Geography)
243-5626 <jag@selway.umt.edu>
Paul Trout (English)
994-5197 <trout@english.montana.edu>
Jack Jelinski (Spanish)
994-6441 <umljj@montana.edu>
Henry Gonshak (English)
496-4310 <hgonshak@mtech.edu>
Ceila Schahczenski (Computer Science)
496-4383 <cschahezenski@mtech.edu>
Keith Edgerton (History)
657-2895 <kedger@msu-b.edu>
Victoria Cech (Greek)
657-2040 <vcech@msu-b.edu>
Alan Weltzien (English)
683-7431 <a_weltzien@wmc.edu>
Steve Lockwood (English)
265-3751 <stlockwood@msun.edu>
Will Rawn (English)
265-3751 <rawn@msun.edu>
Ken Egan (Rocky, English)
657-1095 <egank@rocky.edu>