Katie Fries’ job as the marketing and public relations coordinator at Flathead Valley Community College means being on campus full time. But it’s when she’s off the clock that she really goes to school.
Fries is working toward her master’s degree in business administration through the University of Montana, and is doing so without needing to leave the valley for more than one weekend a month thanks to the partnership between FVCC and the university.
“I work full time,” Fries said. “There is no way I could go to Missoula and do their MBA program without compromising my job and the home I’ve built here.”
During the week, Fries heads to a classroom at FVCC with three other students to participate in a lecture from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The lecture is actually taking place in Missoula, but the Kalispell class joins in by watching it live on a TV via computer. It’s an interactive experience: the professor calls on the Kalispell class for input, and the class can hear their comments.
FVCC offers over 20 programs that give local students the opportunity to pursue four-year and graduate degrees through other schools in the Montana University System with distance and online learning. Now, the college is looking to consolidate these programs with a university center.
During its Aug. 22 retreat, FVCC’s Board of Trustees identified developing a university center on campus as a top priority. This means dedicating a space for students and professors to engage face-to-face, FVCC president Jane Karas said, and potentially expanding the list of four-year and graduate degrees offered through the college.
It’s an efficient way to bring new education opportunities to the people in Northwest Montana, Karas said.
“This is a much more cost-effective way than becoming a four-year college,” Karas said.
The process of acquiring these degrees would stay more or less the same, Karas said. A student at FVCC earns their associate’s degree and transfers seamlessly to the program of their choosing, thus becoming a student of whichever new college or university that offers their program.
A university center would give many of these students a chance to interact in person with their professors and classmates, Karas said. It would also give potential students a better idea of which programs FVCC offers, since the information and school representation would all be in one place.
Financially, FVCC would be responsible for providing space for this to take place, Karas said, but the universities and colleges would be responsible for hiring their own faculty.
Karas said FVCC would begin its needs assessment this fall to determine if any program expansions are necessary or if the school would have to build a new facility for the university center.
It’s a way to bring better, upper-division education opportunities to this corner of the state, Karas said, and it keeps an education affordable for those in the valley.
“We want our students who want to go on and get their bachelor or graduate degree to be successful,” she said. “For a lot of our students, they just couldn’t pick up and get a four-year degree.”
For Fries, getting her MBA through the community college’s partnership with the University of Montana allows her to fulfill her dreams of higher education while getting to live in the Flathead.
“This is where I want to live and to know that I have advanced degree options here, it’s awesome,” she said. “It allows me to do exactly what I was hoping to do.”