Campuses Collaborate, Share Resources

Faced with enrollment challenges, limited funding and demands for increased efficiency, two Montana community colleges are collaborating and using statewide resources to improve services to students, faculty and staff, and increase operational efficiencies — all in support of the colleges’ missions to extend affordable opportunities to all Montana residents.

The two colleges — Dawson Community College and Miles Community College — are partnering to share training and implementation services for their campuses. The University of Montana will provide hosting services and technical and functional support — a logical step, since the University of Montana uses the same administrative system for its four campuses. And ultimately, the Montana Board of Regents hopes that all higher education institutions in the state will use the same enterprise information system. As of now, 14 institutions in Montana are on this path.

“It is critical, especially in these tough financial times, that the campuses within the state of Montana work together and share resources in order to achieve economies of scale that allow for efficient and coordinated delivery of services to students,” said Dr. Sheila Stearns, Montana’s Commissioner of Higher Education.

The solution many higher education institutions are turning to — SunGard Higher Education's Banner Digital Campus — will help the colleges streamline their processes and provide them with greater efficiencies and better services to students, said Stefani Hicswa, president of Miles Community College. “Like most colleges, we are resource limited,” she said. "The implementation will help us advance our strategic plan by 10 years.”

Some of the specific benefits the colleges hope to achieve with their digital campuses include automation of current manual processes leading to increased productivity, shared business rules and practices throughout campus and with other colleges, consistent and accurate data leading to improved data integrity, common data structure and codes, improved data security, and enhanced reporting in support of new accountability measures.

The solution will help make data more accessible and make administrative functions more user friendly to students, said Jim Cargill, president, Dawson Community College. “The digital campus will help move our college into the 21st century and help us provide and continuously improve accessible and effective learning environments for the lifelong educational needs of the diverse communities we serve.”