BOZEMAN - A new opportunity may be on the horizon for Montana State University students, in the form of an on-campus hotel.
“What took so long?” Marcy Gaston said, in anticipation of the possibility of the hotel.
The hotel will not be owned by the university, instead, a developer will pay the university to lease the space provided. There is no word on the size of the hotel, but a few different places have been noted as potential build sites: specifically along 7th Avenue.
“I think that’s going to be the game-changer for the program is to have that resource right nearby,” Dean Alison Harmon said.
Dean Harmon, of the College of Education, Health and Human Development, sees this hotel as a recruitment tool for the Hospitality Management department. Currently, there are a little over 60 students enrolled in the major, with the hopes to garner a couple hundred.
According to the Bozeman Chamber of Commerce, there are 27 hotels in the city limits of Bozeman. Three more hotels are slated to be built in the future.
Hillary Folkvord, the owner of the RSVP Hotel in Bozeman and an MSU graduate herself, sees this hotel as a way to get trained professionals right out of college. Folkvord has hired about half a dozen MSU students and has been pleased with their performance in a hospitality environment.
“MSU really embracing the hospitality curriculum when I was in MSU! You really don’t learn about this industry until you’re in it…MSU Really embracing the hospitality sector of the university!” Folkvord said.
There has yet to be a developer to take the project, but the hospitality management department eagerly awaits the potential future this could bring to students.
