Happy Tuesday, Beacon readers! It’s Mariah Thomas on your Daily Roundup on this beautiful, official first day of fall, happy to report I squeaked in one final summer adventure on Saturday: hiking the Highline with my friends in honor of my birthday. (If you were out there and saw a crew of 20-somethings traversing the trail in party hats, that was us!) So grateful for fall in the Flathead — we couldn’t have asked for a more perfect day. I’m still daydreaming about it. And now, I’m also taking suggestions for a fall bucket list …

Onto more important news!

Last week, I spent a significant chunk of time over at Flathead Valley Community College, listening in on interviews and community forums with the four finalists being considered to replace longtime president Jane Karas. Those finalists are Dr. Mark Browning, the president and CEO of Blue Mountain Community College in Pendleton, Ore.; Dr. Daniel R. Czech, dean of the University of Mississippi’s School of Applied Sciences; Dr. Andrew R. Fields, the CEO of the University of Idaho Coeur d’Alene; and Dr. Deborah Kish Stephan, who currently serves as president of Hillsborough College’s Brandon Campus in Florida.

FVCC’s board of trustees will have its final round of deliberations in *checks watch* roughly an hour. (If you want to attend, those deliberations are supposed to be public and will take place at the Wachholz Entrepreneurship and Innovation Center, room 128.) At those deliberations, the board plans to tap a preferred candidate, with whom it will enter negotiations and, if all goes well, approve at a board meeting next Monday. The moves mean the six-month-long process to find someone to fill Karas’ shoes is drawing to a close.

While we don’t yet know which candidate the board will choose, the questions board members and community members spent the past week asking candidates offer a look at some of the issues the next president will likely focus on during their tenure leading FVCC.

Topping the list in community forums were questions about artificial intelligence on campus, and the approach each job candidate would take to navigating that technology. Board members asked questions about AI in their interviews with candidates too. AI has, in many ways, reshaped the world as generative AI grows in stature and use. Many of its impacts are deeply felt on college campuses, as schools navigate questions around using it ethically, while also preparing students to enter a workforce where they may be expected to have proficiency with the tech. The Montana University System is in the throes of developing AI guidance for schools under its umbrella — of which FVCC is one — but candidates nonetheless were asked to share their views.

The candidates’ answers shared common themes, even if the contours of how they’ve handled its use in their current roles differed: using AI on campus requires a somewhat balanced approach. Students need to be taught about it; but they also shouldn’t be allowed to use it to cheat.

Candidates also fielded questions about how they would build partnerships, handle fundraising and gift-giving, and oversee construction projects on campus. Karas previously told the Beacon expanding the college’s Trades Institute building served as an important effort during her final year at the helm. She also emphasized efforts to adjust the community college funding formula in Montana, a process that must be done through the Legislature.

Each of the candidates gave deference to Karas for her fundraising prowess while promising, if given the opportunity to serve as the school’s president, they’d begin the process of building partnerships with a listening ear — and that went for both external partnerships, like ones with business partners and state legislators, and for navigating internal relationships, like the ones with staff and faculty.

Again, while we don’t know which candidate the board will select, fielding questions about partnerships, AI and more serves as an indicator of the challenges the college is thinking a new president will handle.

More to come, but for now … let’s dive into the rest of today’s Daily Roundup.