Establishment of the college Montana became a state on
8 November 1889. Several cities competed intensely to be the state capital, Bozeman among them. In time,
Helena was named the state capital. As a consolation, the state legislature put the state's
land-grant college in Bozeman.
Gallatin County donated half of its 160-acre poor farm for the campus, and money for an additional 40 acres, which had been planned to hold a state capital, was raised by the community, including a $1,500 donation from rancher and businessman
Nelson Story, Sr. This land, as well as additional property and monetary contributions, was turned over to the state for the new college. MSU was founded in 1893 as the
Agricultural College of the State of Montana. It opened on 16 February with five male and three female students. The first classes were held in rooms in the county high school, and later that year in the shuttered Bozeman Academy (a private
preparatory school). The first students were from Bozeman Academy and were forced to transfer to the college. Only two faculty existed on opening day: Luther Foster, a horticulturist from
South Dakota who was also acting president, and Homer G. Phelps, who taught business. Within weeks, they were joined by S. M. Emery (who ran the agricultural experiment station) and Benjamin F. Maiden (an English teacher from the former Bozeman Academy).
Augustus M. Ryon, a coal mine owner, was named the college's first president on 17 April 1893. He immediately clashed with the board of trustees and faculty. The trustees wanted the college to focus on agriculture, but Ryon pointed out that few of its students intended to go back to farming. The rapidly expanding faculty wanted to establish a
remedial education program to assist unprepared undergraduates (Montana's elementary and secondary public education system was in dire shape at the time), but Ryon refused. The Story land was donated to the college in 1894, but Ryon was forced out in 1895 and replaced by
James R. Reid, a Presbyterian minister who had been president of the Montana College at
Deer Lodge since 1890. The college grew quickly under Reid, who provided 10 years of stability and harmony. The student body grew so fast that college took over the high school building completely. A vacant store on Main Street was rented for additional classroom space. The Agricultural Experiment Station (now known as Taylor Hall) and the Main Building (now Montana Hall) were constructed in 1896, and the agricultural building was the first to open. Both structures were occupied in 1898. The football team was established in 1897, and the college graduated its first four students that same year. The curriculum expanded into civil and electrical engineering in 1898.
Expansion and growth under Hamilton and Atkinson Reid resigned for health reasons in 1905 and was succeeded by
James M. Hamilton, an economist. Determined to make the college into a school of technology, he rapidly expanded the curriculum areas such as biology, chemistry, engineering, geology, and physics. Hamilton also devised the university motto, "Education for Efficiency", which the college continued to use until the 1990s. (although that name was in widespread use as early as 1894). The college's first great rapid expansion of physical plants also began under Hamilton. Constructed during this time were Linfield Hall (1908), Hamilton Hall (1910), and Traphagen Hall (1919). The giant whitewashed "M" on the side of Mount Baldy in the foothills of the Bridger Range was first built in 1916, and in 1917
ROTC came to campus for the first time. Hamilton resigned in 1919 to become Dean of Men, The Heating Plant, Lewis Hall, and Roberts Hall followed in 1923. By the 1920s, the school was commonly referred to as
Montana State College (
MSC). Herrick Hall followed in 1926. The college was justifiably proud of its academic accomplishments, but its sports teams entered a golden age as well. In 1922, Atkinson hired
George Ott Romney and
Schubert Dyche as co-head coaches of the football and men's basketball teams. Between 1922 and 1928 (the year he departed Montana for
Brigham Young University), Romney's football teams compiled a 28–20–1 record. This included the 1924 season in which his team went undefeated until the final game of the year. As a co-head basketball coach, Romney's teams compiled a 144–31 record and invented the
fast break. After Romney left, Schubert Dyche coached the "Golden Bobcats" team of 1928, which had a 36–2 record and won the national championship. In his seven years as a basketball coach, Dyche's teams compiled a 110–93 record (this included the dismal 1932–33 and 1933–34 seasons), but won their conference championship twice. In 1930, the college built Gatton Field, a football field on what is now the site of the Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center. In one of President Atkinson's last accomplishments, the Dormitory Quadrangle (now Atkinson Quadrangle) was built. Bachelor's degree programs in economics, English, history, music, political science, and other disciplines were quickly established, as was the first university honors program. Johnson was a devoted admirer of the arts, and MSU's art and music programs blossomed. Johnson quickly worked to end the acrimonious relationship with the University of Montana, and the two schools began to present a united front to the state legislature. In 1966, Johnson altered and enlarged the university's administrative structure to help cope with increasing enrollment and increasing campus complexity. These changes included creating a 12-member executive council to advise him. The council included newly created vice presidents — overseeing areas such as academic affairs, administration, finance, and research. Johnson was deeply conservative—fiscally, socially, and politically. He was deeply committed to continuing Renne's educational plan but declined to spend money on new buildings (preferring to consolidate and renovate rather than expand). He also continued Renne's policies largely barring from campus speakers who were not clearly in the political mainstream. Johnson's policies were largely supported by the student body and the taxpaying public. MSU practiced a policy known as
in loco parentis, in which it acted as a "parent" of the "children" studying there. To that end, Johnson instituted dress codes, required adult chaperones at dances, banned alcohol, and instituted mandatory military training for freshmen and sophomores. Many U.S. college campuses were engulfed by student radicalism, but MSU's student body was as conservative as Johnson and accepted these restrictions. For many years, the biggest issues on campus were ending Saturday morning classes and building student parking lots. There were some campus protests. The first protest against the
Vietnam War occurred in 1966 (drawing about 100 students), two underground student newspapers briefly appeared, and some students organized clubs to debate issues. There were minor faculty and student protests when Johnson attempted to prevent English professor James Myers from assigning students
James Baldwin's novel
Another Country, and in the summer of 1968 a few faculty organized a symposium on the war. When about 150 students rallied in front of Montana Hall in 1969 to ask for co-ed and "open visitation" dorms (e.g., to allow men into women's dorm rooms, and vice versa), Johnson threatened to call out the city police. MSU's Bobcat Stadium saw its genesis during the Johnson years. Growing student unrest over the football team's use of decrepit Gatton Field (while the basketball team used modern Brick Breeden Fieldhouse) led Johnson in April 1968 to propose a 16,000-seat stadium funded by student fees. The proposal failed in December, after students argued that the university should concurrently build a new fitness center. Johnson died of a heart attack on 18 June 1969. He'd suffered a heart attack in October 1968 and then underwent surgery out of state in April 1969. William Johnstone, a professor of education and Vice President for Administration at MSU, took over as Acting President. He was the first and (as of 2013) only Montanan to become president of MSU. Johnstone pledged to build the fitness center first, and in December 1969 the student body approved the finance plan for the new football stadium. On 2 April 1970, about 250 students engaged in a
sit-in in Montana Hall to protest Myers's termination, but it ended peacefully a day later. Myers was terminated, and another eight faculty resigned in protest. But during his year in office, the university completed Cobleigh Hall (ironically named for the last individual to be named acting president).
Tough fiscal times of the 1970s Carl W. McIntosh was named MSU's eighth president in June 1970. Previously the president of 28,000-student
California State University, Long Beach, McIntosh brought a consultative and deliberate style of decision-making to the university. He faced a poor fiscal climate: The state was entering a decade-long depression brought about by a steep drop in commodity prices, the state's higher education system had grown too large and unwieldy, and Governor
Thomas L. Judge had established a blue-ribbon committee to close several of the state's colleges. In 1974, women faculty at MSU sued, alleging
gender discrimination. They won their suit in 1976, leading to a $400,000 damages award, a back-pay award, and extensive promotions (which also increased salaries). To accommodate these fiscal realities, McIntosh ordered several doctoral and master's degree programs terminated, and all advanced degree programs in the social sciences and liberal arts canceled. But McIntosh also scored several successes. In 1972, he persuaded the legislature to allow MSU to participate in the Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, and Idaho (WWAMI) medical education program, which allowed 20 (now 30) Montana citizens per year to begin medical school at MSU before completing studies at the
University of Washington. The College of nursing (Sherrick Hall) was finished in 1973, and after three long years of construction, Reno H. Sales Stadium (now Bobcat Stadium and Martel Field) and the Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center both opened. In 1974, the long-planned Creative Arts Complex (Cheever Hall, Haynes Hall, and Howard Hall) was also completed. Unfortunately, major increases in inflation led to significant design changes. Instead of a 1,200-seat concert hall with superb acoustics, a cramped and aurally dead 260-seat auditorium was built. Finally, in 1976, the university completed the new medical science building, Leon Johnson Hall. In 1976, the "hidden million" controversy ended McIntosh's tenure as president. In 1975, Montana's first Commissioner of Higher Education, Lawrence K. Pettit (a former MSU professor of political science) launched an investigation of several Montana colleges and universities. He was particularly interested in MSU, where McIntosh's laid-back governance style was widely considered to have hurt the university. In March 1976, Pettit announced he was confiscating $1 million in surplus student fees from MSU—money he said the university was trying to hide from state auditors and the legislature. The monies were the result of excessively high enrollment in the 1974–1975 school year and were intended to help see the university through the 1975–1976 school year (when the legislature would not meet, and thus could not provide the needed budgetary boost to handle the over-enrollment). Pettit all but accused MSU and McIntosh of fraud, and McIntosh refused to attack Pettit's statements as mischaracterizations and slander. The public outcry about the "hidden million" led the board of regents to request McIntosh's resignation on 30 June 1977, which he tendered. (Pettit resigned the next year, his combative attempt to turn the commissioner's office into a sort of chancellorship having failed.)
Resurgence and retrenchment under Tietz William Tietz, MSU's ninth president, arrived in August 1977 just as economic conditions in the state were improving. With three of the four vice presidencies at the university open, Tietz imposed his stamp on the administration almost immediately. This included a strong emphasis on research, faculty development, better teaching, and diversity (particularly for Native Americans, the handicapped, and women). His aggressiveness, energy, and immediate re-budgeting of funds into faculty sabbaticals helped win over professors, who voted against
unionization in 1978. Tietz's major goal, increasing research funding, was greatly helped by a 1981 decision of the legislature to refund indirect cost payments back to the university. This led to an immediate 15 percent recovery of federal funds, and in time private foundation funding rose significantly as well. Only two buildings were constructed during Tietz's presidency—the Visual Communications Building in 1983 and the Plant Growth Center in 1987. Most of his focus as president was on raising salaries. A third building, the modern home of the Museum of the Rockies, opened in 1989. But this structure was paid for by bonds. Faculty salaries had declined 23 percent during the 1970s (due to wage freezes) and MSU was in the bottom 10 percent of salaries for faculty nationwide.
Cooperative Extension Service salaries were dead last in the nation. The state legislature implemented a new salary funding formula that rectified many of these problems. Some university programs were also re-established, such as the honors program, and some new ones were formed, such as the Writing Center. The state entered a severe economic downturn again in the mid-1980s. Budget cuts totaling nearly 10 percent, coupled with an enrollment shortfall, led to significant retrenchment. Tietz argued MSU should focus on its strongest programs. Thus, a wide array of programs were terminated: Membership in the Center for Research Libraries; sports like skiing, women's gymnastics, and wrestling; degree programs like engineering science, business education, and industrial arts; and the office of institutional research. Departments were merged and downsized, and Tietz proposed closing the School of Architecture. A battle broke out to save it, and Tietz backed off. He increasingly blamed Governor
Ted Schwinden for failing to support higher education, and lashed out repeatedly against him when Schwinden publicly ridiculed MSU's new Tech Park (a project designed to function as a technology incubator). Although a second faculty unionization effort failed in 1989, Tietz resigned in March 1990, frustrated by the constant battles with an "old guard" resistant to turning MSU toward high technology.
Centennial and expansion Michael P. Malone was named MSU's Acting President on 1 January 1991, and permanently appointed to the position in March 1991. He was MSU's 10th president. He had served as MSU's Dean of Graduate Studies from 1979 to 1988, and then three one-year temporary appointments as vice president for Academic Affairs while a fruitless national search occurred for a permanent replacement. Malone's governance style was democratic, friendly, and personal, Malone was the first MSU president to preside over the Billings, Great Falls, and Havre campuses. During Malone's presidency, MSU witnessed "one of the greatest expansions in campus history", as a large number of new buildings were constructed. In October 1999, he fired MSU women's basketball head coach Tracey Sheehan and assistant coach Jeff Malby after an NCAA investigation revealed that the two coaches were overworking their team and causing injuries to student-athletes. Like William Tietz before him, Malone also pushed hard for faculty and the university to seek and win federal funding for scientific research. Federal research funding grew from just $13 million in the late 1980s to more than $50 million in 1999. The undergraduate curriculum was revamped, His governance style was open and consultative. In addition to making the president's executive council more representative Gamble
trademarked the name "University of the Yellowstone" to reflect the high level of research MSU conducted in the greater
Yellowstone National Park ecosystem. Gamble also made diversity a major effort in his presidency. He appointed the university's first permanent female vice president, and by 2009 women outnumbered men among MSU's deans, five to four. After an 18-month investigation, six additional current and former MSU athletes were charged with buying and selling cocaine. Three of the six were charged with running a cocaine smuggling ring that sold of cocaine in Bozeman between June 2005 to May 2007. In August 2007,
Sports Illustrated ran a front-page article, "Trouble in Paradise", that recounted drug use, violence, theft, intimidation, and illegal activities by current and former MSU student-athletes and the low-level coaching staff's complicity. An investigation by the NCAA revealed significantly lower graduation rates for MSU football and basketball players under football coach Mike Kramer as well as men's basketball coach Mick Durham, and a large number of athletes on or flirting with
academic probation. Gamble quickly fired Kramer, who then sued MSU for unlawful dismissal. Gamble announced his retirement on 22 March 2009. In addition to enrollment increases, the campus saw the completion of numerous major construction and renovation projects. In the fall of 2010, the university reopened one of its most heavily used classroom buildings on campus, Gaines Hall, after a $32 million renovation funded by the Montana Legislature. That same fall, the university opened its new, 40,000-square-foot Animal Bioscience Building. The $15.7 million building was funded, in part, by donations from Montana's livestock and grains industry. In addition to its classroom and teaching laboratory space, the building became the new home of the MSU College of Agriculture's Department of Animal and Range Sciences. While the Gaines Hall renovation and the Animal Biosciences building were underway before Cruzado took office, in the fall of 2010 she launched an ambitious 90-day campaign to raise $6 million in private donations for a $10 million project to replace and expand the 38-year-old south end zone of the university's football stadium. The university would cover the remaining $4 million for the project, paying it back from revenues generated by MSU Athletics, including ticket sales. The campaign was successful and resulted in a new end zone opening for the fall 2011 season. The end zone project resulted in a net gain of 5,200 seats for the stadium for a total capacity of 17,500. However, through additional standing-room-only attendance, the stadium thrice exceeded 21,000 spectators in the fall of 2013. The fall of 2010 also marked the official opening of Gallatin College Programs at MSU, offering two-year degrees. The program was previously known as MSU-Great Falls College of Technology in Bozeman and was located away from the central campus, but with the renaming, Gallatin College was also given offices and classrooms in Hamilton Hall, located in the campus center. The program's first dean, Bob Hietala, oversaw a period of steady enrollment growth, with Gallatin College growing from 100 students at its start to more than 800 in fall 2019. The program also expanded into new spaces, leasing empty classrooms in the local high school and space in a commercial building off-campus. MSU marked its 125th anniversary in 2018 with a year of celebratory events. Several thousand attended daylong events on 16–17 Feb. featuring family activities, music, fireworks, and speeches commemorating the university's history. A newly installed statue of Abraham Lincoln by Bozeman-area artist
Jim Dolan was unveiled at a ceremony honoring the former president's contributions to
land-grant universities. In November 2019, the board of regents voted to raise Cruzado's salary by $150,000, citing her performance as president and amid reports Cruzado had received a larger offer from another university. Cruzado declined to name the university that wanted to hire her. The 50% raise received support for putting Cruzado's salary in line with other universities' presidents' salaries but also criticism given Montana's median salary ($53,000) and the pay of lower-level employees. In 2020, Cruzado's salary stood at $476,524. Severe snow and cold in 2019 contributed to the collapses of two gymnasium roofs at the university's Marga Hosaeus Fitness Center. The center's south gym roof fell during the early morning hours of 7 March, followed two days later by the north gym roof. No one was injured, and the university decided to completely rebuild the fitness center. Two inflatable gym structures, known as North and South Dome, were erected as temporary replacements during the renovations. The
COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 forced
Montana's public university system to switch to online and remote course delivery midway through the spring semester. To help stem the spread of the disease, the university canceled events, encouraged students not to return after
spring break, and asked employees to work from home, essentially emptying the campus. The spring commencement ceremony was also held online.
Allegations of civil rights violations In October 2023, MSU officials were notified that the institution was under investigation by the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights for discrimination related to the administration's handling of an incident involving death threats received by members of the Queer Straight Alliance, a registered campus student organization, in the spring of 2023. it was reported that more than 20 students filed complaints with the federal agency. Two months later, the university was informed that it faced additional allegations, this time about failing to adequately respond to complaints of harassment made by female and Jewish students on campus. The next month, federal agencies informed university officials of a third civil rights investigation related to allegations of discrimination against a student who had reported incidents of sexual harassment. One month after that, MSU received a fourth notice of investigation from the Department of Education, alleging discrimination against students with disabilities. This time, the notice was accompanied by a warning from investigators: Also in February 2024, a team of Department of Education lawyers and investigators visited the Bozeman campus and met with select students and administrators to discuss allegations of civil rights violations on campus. At the time of the visit, there were 11 pending Department of Education investigations of violations at Montana State, some going back as far as 2016.
Presidents (Acting president) Luther Foster, 1893–1893 1.
Augustus M. Ryon, 1893–1895 2.
James R. Reid, 1895–1904 3.
James M. Hamilton, 1904–1919 4.
Alfred Atkinson, 1920–1937 5.
A. L. Strand,1937–1942 (Acting president) William Cobleigh, 1942–1943 6.
Roland Renne, 1943–1964 (acting from 1943 to 1944) 7.
Leon H. Johnson, 1964–1969 (Acting president) William Johnstone, 1969–1970 8.
Carl W. McIntosh, 1970–1977 9.
William Tietz, 1977–1990 10.
Michael P. Malone, 1991–1999 (Interim president) Terry Roark, 2000 11.
Geoffrey Gamble, 2000–2009 13.
Brock Tessman, 2025–present ==Academics==