By Micah Drew, Jordan Hansen and Keila Szpaller
Happy weekend, Daily Montanan readers. Here’s a few light-hearted news-adjacent thoughts to consider as we shift into March. Oh, and don’t be like me having spent all week thinking Daylight Saving time begins this weekend. It’s next weekend that we spring forward! ~ Micah Drew
Data Delights:
5:27.10
That was Montana State University President Brock Tessman’s time at the Big Sky Tuner track meet faculty mile.
Could you run faster than your university president? Montana State University students might have the hardest time doing that of any students in the country. While there is no list of fastest university presidents (I tried to find one), a case can be made that Tessman — whose time adjusts to around 5:21.80ish if it had been run not at Bozeman elevation — is top tier.
And while Tessman told me before the race that he’d be happy running under 6 minutes — because he hasn’t been training much — he has a talent exceeded by only a handful of current Bobcats student-athletes.
Tessman ran collegiately for Brown University and the University of Colorado, and boasted times in the 800, and 1500m events that would make MSU top-10 lists today, and his 3,000m and 5,000m times wouldn’t be far off.
Maybe MSU can start a new scholarship program where you race the president for $$? 👀
~ Micah Drew
Presidential carousel
Courtesy FVCC
Speaking of college presidents, there’s another changeup coming to Montana’s higher ed institutions.
Media outlets reported this week that longtime Flathead Valley Community College president Jane Karas is retiring at the end of the calendar year.
Karas has been in the position for 25 years, and during that time, she oversaw the college’s growth from 40 to more than 200 acres, and from four to 13 buildings. The school had just over 3,400 students registered for the 2025 academic year.
Karas’ departure is the latest in a rotating door of Montana college presidents — University of Montana president Seth Bodnar stepped down last month, Tessman succeeded Waded Cruzado last year, Carroll College named a new president last fall and Montana Tech selected a new chancellor last spring.
~ Micah Drew
The Hook Book 📚
(Keila Szpaller/The Daily Montanan)
Do you know what I wish I was reading? Any of those Stieg Larsson novels, like “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.”
But I’m not, and that’s OK.
I listened to a short podcast or interview a while back with Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a historian and professor at New York University, and she said something that struck me. She said Americans aren’t as keyed into the signs of authoritarianism as people in some other countries because we don’t have a fresh history with it.
I learned about her book, “Strongmen: Mussolini to the Present,” on that podcast (or interview, I forget), and I was excited to read it. It’s taking me a bit, and it’s worth it, but I also am very much looking forward to one of the final chapters, called “Endings.”
How does this all end?
Obviously, I’m interested in the way “strongmen” treat journalists. If you read it, and you’re from Montana, you’ll see some similarities with the history of our state, with ambitious politicians, our Copper Kings, owning their own newspapers and controlling them.
A lot of the information is hard to digest, but it’s important. I’m going to share a lighter bit with you, though, a joke the author shares.
“In Russia we only had two TV channels,” quipped the comedian Yakov Smirnoff, remembering the days of Soviet rule. “Channel One was propaganda. Channel Two consisted of a KGB officer telling you: Turn back at once to Channel One.”
In that section, Ben-Ghiat goes on to talk about the way Putin uses propaganda.
The weather in Missoula seems to be warming quickly, so I really can’t wait to finish this book and grab a palate cleanser, like a political thriller or mystery, and have a good porch sit with it.
If you’ve got an airport novel you recommend, I’m all ears, [email protected].
~ Keila Szpaller
