The Gianforte Family Foundation donated a significant amount of money to the University of Montana in hopes of creating more jobs in the state. According to UM Foundation Senior Writer Kate Stober, high-tech jobs go unfilled because there aren’t enough graduates with computer science training.

“We were extremely fortunate to receive a pledge of $290,000 from the Gianforte Family Foundation which will support the University of Montana’s Department of Computer Science,” said Stober. “Their support is going to allow the department to hire two lecturers in computer science.”

This is how they expect the two new faculty members to be used to enhance the program.

“They will actually be taking over some of the beginning computing classes which will allow the current faculty members to teach some higher level classes,” Stober said. “The goal for the Computer Science Department is to double the number of majors and minors over the next five years and they can do that by expanding the number of classes they have available.”

The donation was made in the summer and one of the two faculty members was already hired in the fall. Stober expects the other to be hired in the near future.

 

More From Newstalk KGVO 1290 AM & 98.3 FM