Bill to Create State-Wide University Ombuds Offices Defeated in Montana

A state bill that would have encouraged Montana's colleges and universities to include more conservative faculty members failed in the House of Representatives Thursday. The bill would have cost nearly $350,000 a year to enforce, mainly because each college and university would have had to hire an "institutional ombudsman on intellectual diversity," according to the bill's fiscal note. (Great Falls Tribune; Text of Mont. HB 525.)