The CMU Montrose campus has been gifted with an opportunity to grow, announced CMU President Tim Foster on Feb. 13.

The Montrose campus received a $50,000 donation from the San Juan Healthcare Foundation to help the school reach expansion goals and increase student enrollment.

“We’re in the process of master planning,” chairman of the CMU Montrose Advisory Council and member of the San Juan Healthcare Foundation David Reed said. “The commitment is to build the campus downtown, starting with the facility we have now.  It will certainly enhance downtown Montrose to have a thriving university right here in the center of town.”

The donation will be split into two installments spread out over the next two years. The first $25,000 will be used for property acquisition, and the use of the remaining $25,000 has yet to be determined.  The foundation will decide how those funds can best support the Montrose campus when the time comes next year.

The San Juan Healthcare Foundation strives to improve healthcare in the Montrose region.  One of the ways they achieve this mission is through supporting healthcare education programs, such as the nursing and medical office assisting degrees at the Montrose campus.

“About half of our students are pursuing a health science degree,” Director of the Montrose Campus Joey Montoya Boese said.  “Our healthcare community, as well as our community in general, has really stepped up to support the growth of CMU.  The San Juan Healthcare Foundation was just one more community entity stepping up to say, ‘Hey we value education. We value education on the Western Slope, and we want to help.’”

Similar to the exciting changes that have been occurring on the main campus in Grand Junction, the Montrose campus has also grown recently.  The campus received much-needed renovations over the summer of 2012.

“Before, we were in an old school building, and it looked like that,” said Montoya Boese.  “There were green chalkboards in the classrooms and lockers in the hallways.  Our students used to have to go to the high school to take their labs because we didn’t have one.”

Today, the campus has its own labs, including a health science lab.  Because of the support of CMU and both the Grand Junction and Montrose communities, education on the Western Slope is booming.

“The real strength of our university is the multitude of partnerships we have developed in the communities we serve,” said Foster. “The commitment by the San Juan Healthcare Foundation is yet another great example of how the community of Montrose is rallying around our campus and our students.”

akmaddox@mavs.coloradomesa.edu