Archives West Finding Aid

The Montana Office of the Commissioner of Higher Education was established by Article X of the Montana Constitution of 1972. Before that time the executive head of higher education was the executive secretary of the Montana University System. According to the 1972 Constitution, the Board of Regents of Higher Education was to appoint the commissioner and "prescribe his term and duties." The commissioner serves as executive secretary of the Board and as an ex-officio member, as do the governor and the superintendent of Public Instruction. Duties of the commissioner include executing, administering, and interpreting the policies, decisions, and rules of the Board of Regents; acting as chairman of the Council of Presidents; initiating and coordinating reviews of academic programs; controlling inter-unit matters such as budgets, curricula, research, etc.; representing the Board and University System to the legislature and its committees; hearing appeals from students in the University System; and acting as the state certifying officer for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. The first Commissioner of Higher Education was Lawrence K. Pettit who was appointed in 1973. Pettit, who was born in Lewistown, Montana, in 1937, was an associate professor of political science at Pennsylvania State University and then chairman of political science at Montana State University in Bozeman. In 1969 he left this position to serve as gubernatorial campaign manager for his brother-in-law, Thomas L. Judge. Pettit resigned as commissioner in January 1979. The Montana Educational Broadcasting Commission was created by the legislature in 1974 to "promote, establish, operate and maintain facilities to provide noncommercial educational programs to educational institutions and the general public of the State of Montana." The MEBC was composed of five members appointed by the governor and three ex-officio members including the Commissioner of Higher Education, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the Director of the Department of Administration. The MEBC was abolished in 1977.