ASUM may create another governing board

by Jayme Fraser | March 10, 2010 | Montana Kaimin

The ASUM Senate could expand the influence of the campus’ Sustainability Center when it votes Wednesday on a proposal to create a board of directors for the agency.

Currently, one coordinator runs the ASUM center while other agencies, such as ASUM Transportation and ASUM Childcare, are directed and run by a governing board of senators and other campus representatives.

“They help to keep agencies connected to the student population,” ASUM Vice President Emily May said.

May, the author of the resolution, said a board might also make the center more efficient by distributing the workload and bringing in more ideas.

May will also ask the senate to consider a change to election bylaws so that petitions for adding resolutions to ballots would be due the Wednesday before spring break instead of that Friday.

“It would give us more time to check student ID numbers on the petitions,” May said.

Senators Kip Barhaugh and Alison Kilts* will introduce a resolution concerning the number of seats available for the “WWAMI” program.

The program is an agreement with the University of Washington’s School of Medicine that allows students from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana and Idaho to pay resident tuition for a medical education that offers apprenticeships in the five states. The program acronym is made up of the beginning letter of each state. The program was developed in order to strengthen medical support in states without their own medical school.

A limited number of openings are partly funded by state dollars in the hope that, after rotating through several internships within the region, students will practice in the same communities after graduation. Though the Montana Board of Regents has said it won’t reduce the number of seats available this year, the future is uncertain as the state faces budget shortfalls. 

“I think it’s important that we formally encourage them to not cut the seats in the future,” Ashleen Williams said after learning about the resolution at a committee meeting Monday.
The ASUM Senate meets every Wednesday on the third floor of the UC.

*Full disclosure: Alison Kilts is also a page designer for the Kaimin.

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