Geoffrey Gamble

In December 1999, Montana State University president Michael P. Malone died suddenly of a heart attack.[5][8] A nationwide search for a successor began immediately. Gamble says that he was not sought out for the job. Rather, he applied for the position after friends and colleagues urged him to do so.[5]

Gamble was named the 11th president of Montana State University on October 5, 2000.[8] More than 60 applicants sought the position. Gamble won the job over two other finalists — Dr. Larry Branen, Dean of the School of Agriculture at the University of Idaho, and Dr. Ann Weaver Hart, provost and vice president at Claremont Graduate University. (Dr. Hart was subsequently named the president of Temple University and is currently the president of the University of Arizona.) The vote to select Gamble was unanimous. Gamble's starting salary was $133,000 a year, and he assumed his position as president on December 1, 2000.[8]

Gamble was president of MSU from 2000 to 2009.

Gamble's presidency was marked by openness and a consultative style of governance. He made it a goal to interact with faculty, staff, workers, and students as much as possible, and maintained an "open door" policy that permitted almost anyone to make an appointment to see him.[2] He also doubled the size of the president's executive council to make it more representative.[3] He assigned the university provost to attend the weekly Faculty Senate meetings , and met privately with faculty and administrative leaders about governance issues on a weekly basis.[2] He established a new 25-member University Planning, Budget and Analysis Committee to establish the university budget, and made its deliberations and decisions accessible to the media.[2][3] Gamble laid down one budgetary rule, however: The university would not initiate projects without having the money in-hand to complete them.[3]

Gamble also sought to turn Montana State University into a research university. He encouraged faculty to conduct research and to apply for federal research grants, and the school actively sought out federal research money to renovate campus buildings. This effort was largely successful: Between 2000 and 2009, federal research funding at MSU grew by 61 percent to $98.4 million. In 2006, 2007, 2008, and 2009, MSU was the only university in Idaho, Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming to be classified by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching as having "very high research activity" — putting Montana State among such elite institutions as Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, Oregon State University, the University of Washington. and Yale University.[9] Gamble also pressed for the university to be designated the "University of the Yellowstone" to reflect the high level of research MSU conducted in the greater Yellowstone National Park ecosystem. The university applied for a trademark on the name, and Gamble worked to establish and enlarge the Big Sky Institute in Big Sky, Montana (an interdisciplinary research and public outreach institute).[10][11]

Gamble made enhancement of diversity a major effort of his presidency. The university lost a 1974 gender discrimination lawsuit brought by female faculty members. Gamble sought out women for leadership training activities, and encouraged their promotion within the university hierarchy. He appointed Cathy Conover to be vice president for communications and public affairs — making her the university's first permanent female vice president. By the time of his retirement, women outnumbered men among MSU's deans by five to four.[3] Gamble also sought to integrate tribal colleges into MSU's teaching and governance structure as well. He appointed Dr. Henrietta Mann (chair of the MSU Department of Native American Studies) as a special assistant to the president's office. He also made Dr. Mann (one of the most prominent Indian educators in the United States) his personal representative to the seven tribal colleges which participate in the Montana University System.[12] Gamble also created a Council of Elders to bring leaders of the tribal colleges together twice a year at MSU to discuss governance, academics, funding, and integration issues.[2] Native American enrollment at MSU rose 79 percent (to a historic high of 377 students) during Gamble's time in office.[9]

Legislatively, Gamble adopted an approach whereby university officials promoted MSU's accomplishments, praised legislators for their financial support (even when it was not forthcoming), and spoke of state funding for the university in terms of investment that led to economic and job growth. According to Conover, MSU's chief legislative lobbyist, Gamble's style was "a sea change" that led the Republican-dominated state legislature to rave about him.[3]

Montana State University also implemented the "Core 2.0 curriculum" during Gamble's tenure as president. This program encourages undergraduate students to engage in research or practice their art prior to graduation.[2]

Gamble also started a new tradition for the university president. Known as "Move-In Day", the president and other volunteers spend the first day of school helping students move into their dorm rooms.[3]

In 2006, a major sports scandal engulfed Montana State University. MSU hired successful football coach Mike Kramer away from Eastern Washington University in 2000. By 2002, Kramer's Bobcats football squad was tied for first in its league and made it to the NCAA Division I-AA first round playoffs. Kramer's team succeeded in tying again for first in its league and making the playoffs in 2003, tied for first in its league again in 2005, and tied for second place in its league and made it to the NCAA Division I quarterfinal playoffs in 2006. By most measures, Kramer was a highly successful football coach.

On June 23, 2006, however, the body of local Bozeman man Jason Wright was discovered lying in an MSU experimental agricultural field on the edge of the MSU campus. He'd been kidnapped, beaten with a blunt object, and shot 10 times. Seven days later, former MSU basketball player Branden Miller and former MSU football player John LeBrum were charged with Wright's murder.[13][14][15] Wright, a known cocaine dealer, was believed to have been murdered for drug-related reasons. After an 18-month investigation, six additional current and former MSU athletes — including former basketball player Aaron Rich, former football cornerback Andre Fuller, and former football wide receiver Rick Gatewood — were charged with buying and selling cocaine. Three of the six were charged with running a cocaine smuggling ring that sold 26 pounds (12 kg) of cocaine in Bozeman between June 2005 to May 2007.[15]

Court records later revealed that the murder weapon was stashed in a locker in an MSU gymnasium, leading investigators to question whether the killers had help from current MSU staff or students.[15] As the investigation deepened, a former MSU assistant basketball coach admitted that he knew Miller had carried handguns in his athletic bag at school, that Miller was using Wright's identity card, and that Miller had secreted the murder weapon and other handguns in Brick Breeden Fieldhouse.[16] 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 complicity of low-level coaching staff.[17] Montana State University, once nicknamed "Moo U." for its agricultural focus, was now being called "Murder U."[3]

The crimes committed by the student-athletes led to an automatic, routine investigation by the NCAA. The NCAA found no recruiting violations by the school, although it cautioned that many recruiting practices were lax.[15] However, the investigation 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.[3][18] Gamble quickly fired Kramer, who then sued MSU for unlawful dismissal.[3]

Branden Miller was found guilty of murder in 2008 and sentence to 125 years in prison.[19] Lebrum entered into a plea bargain agreement, and was sentenced to 50 years in prison.[20] Kramer and MSU settled out of court, and Kramer received a payment of $240,000.[18]

In 2009, Gamble said his hardest time as president was dealing with the sports scandal.[21]

Gamble's tenure as president was not without criticism.

Faculty members Ed Mooney and Gary Harkin argue that Gamble's focus on research led to increased costs for undergraduates and less focus on high-quality undergraduate teaching.[3] An internal university "report card", created by Gamble, showed that faculty and administrative fell under Gamble fell to just 78 and 73 percent, respectively, of the national average for like-sized universities.[3]

When he retired, Gamble admitted that he failed to achieve some goals. These included launching the MSU Foundation's $100 million capital fundraising campaign, and raising $8 million to build a Native American Student Center.[3]

In October 2009, the Gambles bequeathed much of their wealth to Montana State University. Two endowments were made. One was the Florence and Monty Moneyhan Scholarship Endowment, created in honor of Patricia Gamble's parents.[6] The other was an endowment for the Geoff and Patricia Gamble Center for Student Success. The center will assist students in learning habits and skills that will keep them in school as well as provide training to faculty to improve the quality of teaching.[6] The two endowments totaled more than $2 million,[6] and were called "unprecedented" for an MSU president.[2] The Gambles attributed their wealth to the highly successful insurance career Geoff Gamble had in the 1970s, a lifetime of saving, and prudent investments.[6]

In October 2010, the Gambles announced a $1 million gift to California State University, Fresno. One part of the gift will endow the Dr. Geoffrey and Patricia Gamble Professorship in Linguistics/Endangered Languages. The other part will establish the Dr. Geoffrey and Patricia Gamble Endangered Languages Program Endowment, which will provide financial support to scholars studying languages in danger of disappearing.[4]