July 11-12, 2002 Board of Regents Meeting

Dawson Community College

Glendive, MT

MAS Report

  • Members Present: Dan Geelan (MSU-Northern), Trevor Blyth (MSU-Bozeman), Sara Anderson (MSUGF-COT), Nicole Alley (MSU-Billings), Shonda Schallenberger (MCC), Christy Schilke (UM)
  • Elections: Elections were held using a silent ballot process. Elected officials are Dan Geelan, President, Trevor Blyth, Vice-President, Nicole Alley, Executive Treasurer.
  • FY03 General Fund Reductions:
    • Surcharge: Dan informed the rest of MAS about the June 14th meeting with Governor Martz. The three points that were expressed to the Governor were cost of education, quality of education, and access for certain groups of both current and prospective students. Montana students made the official request of the Governor to make MUS exempt from the FY 03 budget reductions. Expected and expressed answer was no.
    • MAS dialogue revolved heavily around emphasis on affordability verses quality. MAS members were split on this issue. Given graduate marketability, emphasis leaned toward quality. MAS position: Specifically regarding FY03 budget reductions, Montana students would bear part of the financial burden to maintain quality; further, Montana students endorse individual campus budget reductions.
    • Alternatives: In addition, some alternatives were discussed, including tobacco tax, coal tax trust fund, and sales tax. Frustratingly enough, MAS could not come to a resolution on any of the alternatives.
    • Little discussion was given regarding the second round of reductions expected because the amount of reduction has yet to be determined.
  • FY 04-05 General Fund Reductions:  There was some discussion on this issue, but MAS determined that the effect would not be seen until next year and students shouldn't panic.
  • Legislative Action Strategies:  The MSU-Billings faction volunteered to chair this committee, and will continue to formulate strategy for the legislative action plan and effective lobbyist skills. All the campuses will be brought together to provide a united front to the special legislative session as well as the general session.
  • MAS & Student Reports (30 minutes Friday morning):  Students will limit oral presentations to specific issues that the Board is dealing with. Emphasis was placed on timely submission of individual campus written reports.
  • Student Regent Hur:
    • Travel & Reimbursement: MAS authorized partial reimbursement for Student Regent Hurs involvement at meeting with Governor Martz.
    • 3.5% Reduction Response: MAS encouraged Student Regent Hur to be consistent in his position with student tuition increases.
    • Economic Development: Student Regent Hur revised his proposal to present to the Board.
    • Transferability: MAS advised Student Regent Hur to limit his proposal to lower level (100 and 200) classes, as upper level class transferability is unrealistic and unattainable.
  • Student Voter Turnout:

University of Montana: Ben Darrow, representative of CPACC, made a PowerPoint presentation regarding how to effectively increase student voter turnout by 15%.

Luncheon Topics:

  • Solicitation of MAS legislative strategies, and selling the MUS to the legislators.
  • Student opinion on affordability versus quality of education.

Jon Swan, President ASUM

  • ASUM has started the hiring process for the Off-Campus Housing Director. The position has been graded at a Level 11 and will be full time. We hope to have the position screened and hired by the Board of Directors by mid-August.
  • ASUM has been collaborating with Ben Darrow of CPACC in Missoula in an effort to increase our GOTV efforts. We have come up with a plan to effectively increase student voter turnout by 15%. Our hope is to collaborate with the other Montana campuses in order to have a greater impact as students on voting issues.
  • ASUM is in the process of creating a lobbyist training program for students in the fall. This will be a two day workshop for students to give them the tools to effectively lobby in the spring. Along with lobbying tools, we will educate students on the pertinent issues for the legislative session.

Nicole Alley, President ASMSU-B

  • The Residential Life and Orientation office has changed the format of freshman orientation and are getting great reviews. There are orientation sessions throughout the summer that new students can sign up for every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and a few Fridays. The office limits the number of students who attend a certain day to 20 so each student gets a more personalized visit. Every student meets one-on-one with their advisor, tours with a small group, meets faculty and staff members from their chosen degree program at lunch, and can request to go to specific offices the day they arrive. The evaluations that are being returned praise the personalized session.
  • Our summer senate reviewed the budget and surcharges that are affecting our campus, and we commend our Chancellor for dealing with this situation in a manner that does not increase students tuition.
  • The students at MSU-Billings are concerned with the initiatives that do not address the problem of graduating students leaving the state because they cannot afford to stay in Montana.
  • Montana State University-Billings is having a great summer with campus events and community presence. The ASMSU-Billings University Events Coordinator has had extremely successful socials at both the main campus and the CoT, having free sundaes, root beer floats, and BBQs. He is also on schedule for our 21st annual Summerfest. It will be held on Tuesday, July 16 from 4:30 p.m. till 8:00 p.m. This event brings over 1000 people to our campus to enjoy food, inflatable games, and entertainment. We get free publicity from the local radio stations and they broadcast live from the campus the day of the event. We are also sponsoring an evening of Shakespeare in the Park on the 23rd and 24th. This event is held at Pioneer Park close to our campus and our Alumni Association provides refreshments for the plays.
  • This will also be our second year hosting the Yellowstone Art Museum's fundraising event, Summerfair. This is a two-day event and was very successful last year even with the move from Rocky's campus to ours. This event is on the 20th and 21st and MSU-Billings has sponsorship credits on over 500 posters around town and will be promoted on our public television channel as well as most of the radio stations.

Dan Geelan, President ASMSU-N

  • Summer session classes are in full swing and enrollment is up slightly at Northern this summer.
  • ASMSU-N Senate Office and Lounge: ASMSUN purchased new office furniture, couches, recliners, TV, DVD player, and stereo along with new carpeting for the Senate Office and Lounge. It is our hope and goal to improve the image of Student Senate at MSUN. We hope that by creating this inviting atmosphere students will visit the Senate lounge and be more accessible to members of Senate for questions and comments.
  • ASMSUN continues with free lunches for students and discounted lunches for faculty, staff, and administration. In addition to lunches, we are also giving away apparel from the MSUN bookstore. We are getting quite a number of community members showing up too. This is ASMSUN's small way of contributing to promoting the campus-community atmosphere.
  • Last year ASMSUN designed and purchased new school flags. This summer we are striving to erect a flagpole in front of Cowen Hall. We plan to approach the Alumni Association and the Foundation for additional funding to help us with this project.
  • Shakespeare in the Park: Once again Shakespeare will be presented to Northern students and the Havre community. This event will take place at 6:30 p.m. on August 7th.
  • ASMSUN is pursuing having all student service offices and resources available and accessible during consistent hours throughout the campus. We are proposing 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.
  • As you travel around campus at Northern, the grounds crews (and it appears to be much larger crews than last summer) are busy beautifying the campus.
  • ASMSUN has hired a graphic arts student to help construct a Student Senate web site. The concept meeting for this project was held this week and work will continue throughout the summer and hopefully the web site will be up and functional by the beginning of fall classes.
  • ASMSUN, the Food Services Director, and the Vice Chancellor are reviewing current vending contracts for carbonated beverages.
  • The technology upgrades (cable, phone, and data) for the residence halls is approximately 20 percent complete. Completion of this project should be the beginning of fall classes. When students arrive at the residence halls, for a small additional fee per semester they should have internet connections, cable, and outside phone service in each of the rooms.

Sara Anderson, President ASMSU-GF

  • ASMSU-GF held early bird orientation and supplied lunch, tours of the campus, and assistance with registration for incoming students.
  • ASMSU-GF president attended a meeting in Helena with Governor Martz regarding the budget cutbacks.
  • Student officers recently attended a civic engagement convention in Pablo, MT sponsored by the ECE, Educators for Community Engagement.
  • Student government is facing storage problems as is all of campus. The Senate is looking into the purchase of a small storage unit to place on the campus grounds.
  • The first meeting for senators and prospective senators is September 9th with an open house in the student lounge.
  • The campus is looking forward to a visit from President Gamble on July 19th. The Dental Hygiene program ribbon cutting is also planned for the same day.

Shonda Schallenberger, President ASMCC

With summer now in session and students graduated, ASMCC is looking forward to a new year. Here are a few things we would like to highlight:

  • Our campus, along with RSVP, will be spending next year setting up an emergency awareness program for our community. Thanks to a Homeland Security Grant, we will be able to help our community be ready if an emergency occurs. We will be setting up drills and teaching everyone in the community and campus what their responsibilities will be. We will be the first community and campus in Montana to do this.
  • Our campus has also committed to organizing a town clean up. We will be dividing the town into regions and then set up a day for different groups to clean up their assigned regions.
  • Over the school year, ASMCC sponsored pop-a-shot at all our basketball games. Over the year we earned $400 to donate to our campus beautification project. We have also purchased four new flag poles that have been added to our campus to fly flags of our international students.
  • Senate, along with PTK successfully sponsored our academic awards banquet. We showcased the talents of many students along with presenting academic awards including for the first time, the MCC Humanitarian Award.
  • We have also revised our constitution and by-laws. If you are interested in reading them I invite you to visit our senate web site at www.mcc.cc.mt.us/webpages/student_activities/senate/.

I would also like to invite all of you to visit our campus

Trevor Blyth, President ASMSU-Bozeman

Incoming student numbers for Fall 2002 are very positive. New Student Orientation is up from last year with 447 students in attendance at the June 24-26 orientation. The July 15-17 orientation has been full at 450 incoming students since the beginning of June. The third orientation on July 29-31 is capped at 450 and filling up quickly. The final orientation in August is unlimited and expected to exceed 700 students.

The MSU Leadership Institute (an ASMSU committee) is in the process of hiring a part-time professional employee. The MSU Leadership Institute is a student organization with the mission of providing services to MSU students that promote leadership skills and professional growth. Some of the services include workshops preparing students to pursue and obtain post-graduate jobs, bringing notable speakers to Bozeman, and presentation of leadership workshops. The addition of a professional employee will enable increased grant writing activity and the ability to increase the services brought to students.

Jared Robertson, President ASMT

  • The KMSM student run radio station is still undergoing its frequency change, and is still awaiting approval from the FCC for the frequency change from 106.9 f.m. to 107.1 f.m.
  • Construction of the flagpoles is complete. Campus clubs and organizations, as well as students helped fund this project. The student in charge of the construction made a special trip from his current job to Butte over the 4th of July so he could raise the flags.
  • Faculty and students participated in a campus-wide clean-up that included a barbecue. Many of the students participating in summer session participated in the event.
  • Orientation for incoming freshmen took place in June and another orientation will take place on the 12th of July. Numbers of incoming freshmen look good for the upcoming academic year.