Board of Regents
January 16-17, 2003
Helena, MT

 

Associated Students Montana State University-Northern
Dan Geelan, President

ASMSUN purchased a flag pole to erect in front of Cowen Hall. The ground set is complete and all work done by the civil engineering club. The original flagpole that was ordered was too short and a new pole should be received at Northern shortly. There will be a flag raising ceremony hopefully before the end of January.

MSUN food service underwent some renovations over the Christmas break. New lighting and ceiling tiles were installed. The old Grille has been converted to a TV lounge complete with a couch, recliner, end tables, and TV. The food line has a new look also.

ASMSUN will be compiling a new set of goals for spring semester at their first meeting January 27th.

Associated Students Montana State University Bozeman
Trevor Blyth, President

         On December 12 an evening study break event was offered with large success. The event featured free tutoring, pancakes and coffee, cookie decorating, pictures with Santa and live music. Food for an estimate of 400-500 people was planned, but and ran out halfway through the event. The event was scheduled to run from 9 to 2 A.M. but ended early due to a lack of food.

         ASMSU has been busy making preparations for the legislative session. One of the focuses will be to develop relationships with many legislators through personal contact with students. Weekly trips are being planned for as many as ten students each week. Each planned trip will involve the opportunity to meet a limited number of legislators over an informal lunch and develop relationships. Trips will also be coordinated around opportunities to testify whenever possible.

         On December 10th representatives from MSU-Bozeman, MSU-Billings, and Northern met in Helena in preparation for the Legislative session. An informational meeting was held at the Commissioner's office. The group then spent the afternoon touring the capital and getting acquainted with several people including a short meeting with the Governor.

         The ASMSU Senate this fall approved a resolution in support of a new public transportation system within the Bozeman community. The project, which is still in preliminary stages of development, has shown interest in absorbing the ASMSU Bobcat Transit service into the proposed Bozeman transit system. Funding support currently utilized for the Bobcat transit would provide much of the necessary initial support needed to gain federal funding and grants. ASMSU support is based upon the premise that services currently provided would not decrease and would not incur any additional costs to students.

Associated Students The University of Montana-Helena College of Technology
Joe Clark, President

Since the last board of regents meeting our Student senate has only met once. With finals and the holidays approaching I deemed it necessary to cancel our meeting during finals week.

In the one meeting we had we managed to get a lot accomplished. The first thing on our list was to approve our student senate funded UMHCT Christmas part expenditures. We approved that the door prizes were appropriate as follows: First drawing gave away a CD, second drawing gave away a CD player, third drawing was a DVD player, and fourth drawing was a 25" TV. The rest of the setup, take down, DJ and food costs were also deemed appropriate. The turn out to our Christmas party was great over 100 people showed up and everyone seemed to have a good time. The next thing that we discussed was a second annual battle bot war. This is a war between machines built by our machine, welding and electronics programs, with the same rules and guidelines as the wars on TV. The response last year from the war was phenomenal and we hope to open it up to the public this year. We are proposing to give enough funds to get five battle bots up and running for the second annual war. We also plan on having an ice fishing derby, two more bowling nights, a ski trip and a spring BBQ. Our goals are falling into place and the excitement around campus is greater than ever before. We hope to reach our goal of unity between campuses before the year-end, and to keep up the activities for years to come.

Associated Students Miles Community College
Shonda Schallenberger, President

         ASMCC had a food drive on November 22. All community members who brought food got into the basketball game for free. There was a dance afterwards.

         Over Thanksgiving ASMCC provided 25 turkey baskets for non-traditional students. The baskets included a turkey and all the goods needed for a complete turkey dinner. Senate delivered the baskets on doorsteps then run. This is the third year we have provided turkey dinners.

         On December 11 ASMCC hosted an open house. We provided food, presents and fun for all the students. We also provide a professional back massage for all our students.

         ASMCC has raised around $180 from pop-a-shot that will go towards the MCC beautifications project.

         We are also looking forward to having out first ever homecoming. During the week of January 27th there will be activities with a dance at the end of the week. Hopefully we can increase student spirit and participation.

         Id also like to recognize Beau Hill, MCC alumni for qualifying for the National Finals Rodeo and finishing 7th.

Associated Students Montana Tech of The University of Montana
Jared Robertson, President

         The College of Technology (COT south campus) made fleece blankets for individuals in rest homes without family for the holiday season. ASMT helped provide some of the funding as well as members in the community. Those involved in the project received recognition from the local paper as well.

         An archway will be constructed at Montana Tech in the late spring. Funding for this archway was generously donated by Bob Poore, a long time resident of Butte.

         The Society of Petroleum Engineers (SPE) had there annual bizarre at Tech to help raise funding for there organization.

Associated Students The University of Montana-Missoula
Jon Swan, President


The University of Montana has been buzzing with excitement over student involvement since the last Board of Regents meeting in Missoula.

Coca-Cola Contract:

Students are frustrated with a number of issues that the now signed beverage contract brings to our campus. Student input was completely negated throughout the process. We were told that we would be involved with the decision from the beginning. Yet, we were not contacted during the RFP process or in the final decision. While the contract has been called a "business decision," we feel that there are many policy implications that the contract brings.

The exclusivity of the contract is not in the best interest of the student body. A university is philosophically a place of scholarship and choice. We fear that this is the first step towards turning our institution of higher education into a corporation. As John Snider wrote in his editorial corporations and businesses have but one goal, to make money; while a university has but one goal, to discover truth. These two seldom coincide.

The $4.2 million figure that has been floating around is not the actual cash allocation in the contract. It has been said that the contract is worth $2.8 million. Yet, when one looks at the contract, we see that the real added-value to The University of Montana is much less. Over $700,000 of this is in vending commissions, something that we received in the past. Other monies are tied up in places like dining services, where savings are minimal and students will not receive a reduction in fees. Also, there is much in free advertising for Coca-Cola, an opportunity cost that makes the contract worth even less.

Lastly, the contract was denied viewing when requested by students. We were told that the contact was a "done-deal," which couldn't be further from the truth. It also seemed very precarious that the agreement was signed soon after we got a hold of it. In the end, we were frustrated with the lack of student input that went into devising the agreement.

Very few people are receiving a benefit from this contract. This is distressing; especially when we consider that it is at the expense of a student body.

Same-sex health benefits:

For the past four years, ASUM has offered its encouragement to the MUS to offer health-benefits to same-sex partners. I will not dispel through each reason, for many of them were articulated quite well at the last BOR meeting. I will, however, make mention to the idea that the MUS should be leaders in the state of Montana, not the followers.

Legislative Session:

Sarah Cobler, the ASUM lobbyist, has been working very hard in December to outline a legislative strategy for ASUM. As mentioned in the past, we will be holding a legislative lobbyist training in Missoula early in February. This one- to two- day workshop will allow students whom are interested in the legislative process to receive professional advice from lobbyists, legislators, and government officials on how to effectively lobby this upcoming session.

MontPIRG:

Since various interested students would not be able to attend the January Montana Board of Regents meeting, we have decided to take this issue off of the agenda. We do plan on bringing the issue in front of the BOR soon, however.

If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to contact me at the information listed below. Thank you for your time.

Associated Students Montana State University-Great Falls College of Technology
Sara Anderson, President


The senators of ASMSUGF had a gift tree set up by our Student Emergency Assistance Program. People where able to fill out applications for gifts for their family if they where unable to buy for them, and the bulbs where put on our giving tree, other faculty, staff and students throughout the building had the ability to buy the gifts and return them for the students in need through the holidays.

ASMSUGF supported the auto body students in their fund raiser at the college which paid for the remaining bulbs on the tree.

The senate also held a food drive between the various departments within the college, the winner received a pizza party on the ASMSUGF. Business and technology brought in the most items of food for the St. Vincent De Paul food bank.

There are several senators signed up to help incoming new students around the building and with common questions and directions on January 15th the first day of classes.

The ASMSUGF senate will begin a new semester starting January 22nd, 2003.