President’s celebration bittersweet
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PABLO – She would have liked it to be under different circumstances, but Dr. Sandra L. Boham became the president of the Salish Kootenai College in February after being appointed by the college’s board of directors.
“We are pleased that Dr. Boham has accepted the position of President,” Board Member Ellen Swaney stated in a press release. “Dr. Boham has been a member of the administrative team since she was hired as Academic Vice President and we value her knowledge, leadership and commitment to the college.”
Boham served as the interim president in December 2015 after the school lost President Robert Depoe III to cancer. She was also the acting president during his illness.
“We really miss him,” she said.
She plans to carry on many of the visionary projects he began, including a health clinic for students and staff that is soon to open and a capital campaign focused on raising $20 million in funding for the college.
Before being appointed, Boham had a conversation with an elder about the position. She said he asked her “Are you ready for this?” Yes, was her answer, but that answer had a lot of history.
“I didn’t get here by myself,” she said. “I have a great team and lot of guidance, and I won’t be doing it alone.”
Joe McDonald, former president and college founder, is one of the many people she consults to help her consider decisions.
“I have asked him many questions over the years,” she said, adding that she started asking McDonald questions when she became an adult education and GED instructor at SKC in 1979 while she was working on her bachelor’s degree in sociology at the University of Montana.
“I have a long relationship with this college,” she said.
That relationship began before she graduated from Mission High School in 1978 when SKC was barely a year old.
“In high school, I got the opportunity to take classes at the college,” she said, explaining that the school was spread out all over the valley back then and didn’t have a central campus like it does now.
Boham didn’t know what she wanted to do as far as a career until she got the opportunity to take those classes.
“I found out that I love college,” she said. “I loved everything about those classes at SKC, and I knew then that I wanted to go to college. I learned that becoming educated is how you have the best options for your future.”
After receiving her bachelor’s degree in 1982, she taught classes at the Women’s Correctional Center in Warm Springs and went on to teach at Kicking Horse Job Corps. She eventually started working full time at SKC in 1985.
“In 1989, I met my husband (Dr. Russell Boham) while I was getting a master’s degree in higher education in Bozeman during the summers,” she said.
Boham moved to California with her husband soon after they were married where she worked on many projects and taught Native American Studies at the College of the Redwoods. The couple also had four children.
In 2003, she moved back to Montana, and she was hired at SKC to help with a Gear UP project. In 2006, she took a position as the director of Indian education in Great Falls.
She came back to SKC in 2014 to work as the vice president of academics, and she finished a doctoral degree in educational leadership from the University of Montana. Her appointment as president of SKC is her last stop until she retires, she said, although “that won’t be for a while.”
As the president of the college, Boham is charged with implementing the goals of the college board, making plans for the future of the college and working with the community. She is currently working on developing more skill-based programs with her team, like emergency response, construction and dental assisting.
“Maybe someone plans to go to college but things happen, and with this, they can get something like an EMT certificate, and they don’t need to spend two years to get it,” she said.
As the new president, Boham faces a few challenges at the college where about 850 students are enrolled including budget constraints, housing shortages, and a small decline in enrollment due to demographic trends.
“We’ve had lower demographics in the high schools in the past few years due to women choosing to delay having children,” she said. “If you look at the elementary schools, the numbers are increasing, so we just have to keep our focus and wait a few years.”
Economic challenges across the United States in the past created another challenge when considering tuition costs.
“We haven’t raised tuition in four years,” she said. “We looked at the economy and decided we wanted to leave our students with minimal debt when they finish school.”
Boham is an enrolled member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, and she said that the preservation and perpetuation of her culture is another one of her top priorities.
“We are seeing language revitalization and we want to continue that,” she said.
Many culturally based skills are taught at SKC from hide tanning to weaving.
“It’s not just about the skill, it’s about how that skill is embedded in the culture. We want to look at the stories involved with those skills,” she said.
Boham is also working to get more students interested in science, technology and energy, but she says it’s important for people to get educated in whatever field they choose.
“We want to educate our students and support the tribe with a valuable workforce,” she said. “SKC is the best-kept secret in the valley that we want everyone to know about and take advantage of the educational opportunities we have to offer.”
