Our cover story this week takes a look at the efforts of students in the School of Music to raise funding for desperately needed building renovations. After feeling frustrated by a lack of University support on issues that have needed to be addressed for years, music students have taken their pleas to the legislature, lobbying for funding distribution through law.
But this scenario is just a microcosm of a phenomenon weâve recognized at UM â a trend of the University prioritizing STEM over the arts, which worries us.Â
As the University continues its decade-long decline in enrollment and dips under 10,000 students for the first time in 30 years, itâs clear something needs to change. At some point, UM stopped catering to its niche: being the only public university in Montana to offer certain arts degrees like dance, journalism and creative writing.Â