Message from president Royce Engstrom.

• Author: Engstrom, Royce C.

The message from the experts around the entire Montana University System in this issue of the Montana Business Quarterly is one we've been waiting a long time to hear--the Montana economy is finally getting better. As these pages explain, that doesn't mean the challenges all of us have been facing for the past two and a half years are going to disappear overnight. But it's nice for all of us--from our spring graduates heading for the job market, to retirees trying to stretch their savings--to know that things are at least heading in a better direction.

What some have called the Great Recession has presented us at The University of Montana with some different kinds of challenges. The headcount enrollment at our Missoula campus this spring was an all-time high of more than 15,000, which includes more than 350 additional students enrolling in our College of Technology (COT) compared with a year ago. There's no question that changes in the economy, some of them disruptive and painful, have caused many...