Geoffrey Gamble
Geoffrey Gamble (born 1942) is an American linguist who served from 2000 to 2009 as the 11th president of Montana State University.
[3] In December 1999, Montana State University president Michael P. Malone died suddenly of a heart attack.
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][3] Gamble laid down one budgetary rule, however: The university would not initiate projects without having the money in-hand to complete them.
This effort was largely successful: Between 2000 and 2009, federal research funding at MSU grew by 61 percent to $98.4 million.
Gamble sought out women for leadership training activities, and encouraged their promotion within the university hierarchy.
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.
This program encourages undergraduate students to engage in research or practice their art prior to graduation.
[3] In 2011, Gamble was named in an interview with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle by three Montana State history professors--Jeffrey Safford, Pierce Mullen, and Robert Rydell--as one of the key MSU presidents who have built on the legacy of previous school presidents like William Tietz.
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.
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.
[17] 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.
[16] 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.
[22] Gamble stayed on as an adjunct professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, teaching one or two courses a semester.
[7] Gamble was appointed interim senior provost at the University of North Texas (UNT) in August 2011.
One was the Florence and Monty Moneyhan Scholarship Endowment, created in honor of Patricia Gamble's parents.
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.
