By Anne Cantrell, MSU News Service

BOZEMAN — At its meeting today the Montana Board of Regents approved Montana State University's request to name its nursing college the Mark and Robyn Jones College of Nursing.

"It is our honor to recognize the extraordinary generosity of Mark and Robyn Jones," said MSU President Waded Cruzado. "It was our deliberate action, as a university community, to initiate this recognition. Mark's and Robyn's investment in our MSU College of Nursing will benefit generations of Montanans and we acknowledge it is only fitting that they are recognized."

In August, the Jones made a $101 million philanthropic investment in the university's College of Nursing. The gift — the largest ever given to a college of nursing, as well as the largest private gift in the history of the state of Montana — will:

Fund the construction of new facilities at each of the MSU College of Nursing's five campuses in Bozeman, Billings, Great Falls, Kalispell and Missoula. Equipped with modern classrooms and state-of-the-art simulation labs, nursing students will hone their critical thinking and practice their skills in these new facilities.

Establish five endowed faculty professorships — the first in the history of the MSU College of Nursing. These endowed professorships will position MSU to attract top faculty talent during a nationwide nursing faculty shortage.

Develop an endowed scholarship fund that will allow the MSU College of Nursing to keep the cost of nursing education affordable for all students.

Create Montana's only certified nurse midwifery program preparing doctoral level nurses who will significantly increase the number of specialized maternal health care providers capable and willing to provide services to rural and remote communities in Montana.

With additional space to grow its enrollment, MSU estimates it will be able to meet the state's projected nursing shortage by 2030.

"As I visited with Mark and Robyn over months about their vision, I was struck by their down-to-earth pragmatism," Cruzado said. "Once Mark said to me, 'There are gifts that create a lot of splash and then there are gifts that make the world better – I want our gift to make the world better.'

"Mark and Robyn have never sought the spotlight in any of our discussion over this past year and they have never asked for any recognition," Cruzado continued "But all of us at Montana State University feel that the transformative nature of their gift, given with the vision of helping all Montanans, deserves to be recognized. Mark and Robyn's generosity will help improve the lives of Montanans for generations. We think it only fitting that their names be remembered."

In her opening remarks to the regents Thursday, Cruzado shared that the Joneses continue to be active participants in planning efforts, regularly meeting with university planning committees.

"They provide us with their guidance and with the vision they want us to fulfill," Cruzado said. "In recognition of that, the faculty and students of the College of Nursing thought it would be appropriate for their college of nursing to bear the name of Mark and Robyn Jones."

After the vote, Regent Casey Lozar expressed appreciation to the Joneses.

"From the regents, we very much appreciate the vision that you've brought to this investment," Lozar said. "Certainly the investment will have an impact on all Montanans for many, many generations, and it will have an impact on the Montana University System, so we very much appreciate you seeing the university system and Montana State as a great place to invest."

Mark Jones said after the vote that he and Robyn feel very honored and appreciate the recognition, but they chose to make the investment for other reasons.

"We appreciate this recognition. That's not why we made the investment. We just were looking for an opportunity to help and make a difference," he said.

The Joneses are the founders of Goosehead Insurance, based in Westlake, Texas, and Mark currently serves as chairman and CEO of the company. Founded in 2003, Goosehead is a rapidly growing and innovative personal lines insurance agency that distributes its products and services through more than 1,800 offices in the United States with a market capitalization of $5 billion.

Founded in 1937, Montana State University's College of Nursing offers bachelor's, accelerated bachelor's, master's and doctoral-level nursing education to produce nurses, nurse leaders, nurse educators and nurse practitioners for Montana. Using a distributed model, Montana State is the largest producer of registered nurses in Montana and is the sole provider of doctoral nurse practitioner education in the state. More information is available at montana.edu/nursing/.

Montana University System and MSU policies permit colleges to be named in honor of individuals. The MUS naming policy can be found here: mus.edu/borpol/bor1000/1004-1.pdf.