Student Senate Holds Town Hall Meeting
Student Senate Town Hall Meeting

During the last Board of Regents Meeting in Missoula the Montana Associated Students (MAS) presented a resolution that they wanted each of the campuses in the Montana University System to approve.

The MAS resolution called for support of the rights of demonstrators to peacefully protest the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota and for state and Montana officials not to send any additional personnel or tax dollars to North Dakota to assist with ongoing law enforcement efforts at sites where protesters have camped out.

Northern's Student Senate felt the best way to make the decision was to hold a Town Hall meeting to discuss the topic. In the end, 10 members voted against the resolution and six senators abstained. None of the student senators voted in favor of the resolution.

Dr. Steve Wise, MSU-Northern's Dean of Student Life, shared these insights into the meeting. "This week our Student Senate hosted the first Town Hall of the year. Our Senators and Senate leadership worked hard to ensure that community members and our guests were provided a good forum in which their perspectives could be heard. As a relatively new member of the Northern Community, I was encouraged by the carefully considered, respectful, and well-presented positions offered by those who chose to speak. In a healthy community each person is valued and their perspective welcomed. We saw that in action this at the Town Hall Meeting this week. Was it perfect? No, but we clearly showed that we care about each other by the way we listened to each other. And that, I suggest, should be celebrated. As we continue to offer these kinds of opportunities we all will become more respectful of each other, better listeners, and even more committed to creating and maintaining a campus community where each one feels they belong, that they are valued and knows that Northern could not be Northern without them."