Montana’s student leaders meet at UM

Despite the heightened atmosphere of team rivalry with the upcoming Cat-Griz game on Saturday, student representatives from Montana universities were in agreement on many issues Wednesday.
The Montana Associated Students, a group consisting of the presidents and vice presidents of Montana college senates, meets six times a year. ASUM hosted Wednesday’s meeting, and UM student president Trevor Hunter used the opportunity to discuss three ASUM-supported bills.
Denver Henderson, director of the Off-Campus Renter Center, told visiting leaders about the bill ASUM supported to help expand rights of Montana’s house renters.
“The intent of the resolution is to bring all the schools to the table,” Henderson said

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Across the state, 30 percent of occupied homes are rented, and mostly by university students, Henderson said.
That’s why it is important for all the schools to back ASUM in their support of the bill, he said.
“Hopefully, we will be able to work together among our schools to gain support for the bill in the state legislature,” Henderson said.
It would be easier to push it through the state senate if all the schools supported the initiative, Henderson said.
ASUM presented another idea that won immediate support, called the Opportunity Montana initiative, a program modeled after one used in Maine schools, Hunter said.
“If students stayed in (Maine) and worked in the state in the field they graduated in, they received a tax credit,” Hunter said.
Last month, ASUM wrote their own version of the program, and it won unanimous support among UM’s senators.
At Wednesday night’s meeting, all the student university representatives agreed to follow ASUM in pushing it onto the state senate floor.
“The biggest barrier we see is state legislatures who don’t want to invest money on students who turn around and work in another sate,” Hunter said. “Which I think is a viable argument.”
MAS also agreed to unanimously support a bill outlining an online voter-registration process.
Hunter said Arizona, Washington and California all have allowed online voter registration and have seen huge success.
“It also eliminates the potential for human error,” said ASUM Vice President Siri Smillie.
Other ASUM agencies also had a chance to appear in front of Montana’s university representatives.
Sustainability Center coordinator Jessie Davie spoke about UM’s current efforts toward carbon neutrality. She told the leaders about the climate commitment President Dennison signed, pledging the university to work toward a greener campus.
“I would challenge you to go back to your campuses and do what UM has done and create an institution for a sustainability coordinator,” Davie said.
Shane Colvin, senate president of MSU-Bozeman, said his university is “in discussion to approve funding for a streamlined transit system.”
Smillie urged Colvin and the other representatives to stop by the UC’s transportation office before they leave Thursday.
“We’ve been involved in talks as far as transportation goes because of the stimulus packages coming in January (from the state senate),” Smillie said. “There’s a lot of opportunity for funding there.”
Smillie said that working together for better transportation in all of Montana’s university towns is crucial for success.
“It’s a big pot of money we should be thinking about as far as coordinating, so we’re not all fighting for the same money,” Smillie said.
Despite all the support for ASUM’s ideas, the meeting ended on a note of tension when the discussion turned to football.
“We’re looking forward very much to beating the Griz this weekend,” Colvin said.
joshua.potter@umontana.edu