Matt Smith has already made a difference at Montana State University, helping start the student-led recycling program and other environmental sustainability projects.
Now Smith hopes to have a statewide impact, by representing all Montana students as the student regent on the Board of Regents.
Smith, 20, a junior from Helena studying business and pursuing minors in religion and English, has been chosen by the Associated Students of MSU student government as the Bozeman campus candidate for the student regent post.
Smith said he would be a good representative because, like 40,000 other Montana students, he’s an undergraduate.
“I know how hard it is to get the grades, stay in school, pay tuition,” Smith said.
He said he also would stand for students’ desires to improve environmental policies.
Five or six students will be nominated from campuses around the state and screened this week by the student government leaders who serve on the Montana Association of Students. MAS will forward three names to Gov. Brian Schweitzer, who will make the one-year appointment.
Teresa Snyder, ASMSU president-elect, said Bozeman students believe Smith is “the crème de la crème.”
Justin Folsom, an ASMSU senator, agreed, adding he hopes that by publicizing their candidate, MSU students can build support for Smith.
The last MSU student to hold the student regent post was Kala French, who came into conflict with Schweitzer four years ago over whether her three-year appointment by Gov. Judy Martz should end early. French ended up leaving after a year and a half.
Since then, Schweitzer has appointed student regents Heather O’Loughlin from the University of Montana Law School, who served a year and a half; Kerra Melvin from University of Montana’s Montana Tech campus in Butte, who served one year; and Mitch Jessen from the University of Montana-Western campus in Dillon, whose year expires in June.
Smith said Bozeman students feel it’s their turn. But even more important is qualifications, he said.
Smith said when he came to MSU from Helena High, he didn’t have any major or direction. But when he started getting involved in environmental projects, his activism “snowballed,” and he became a better student. He’s now taking 19 credits.
Smith, along with Josh Jane, founded the Network of Environmentally Conscious Organizations or NECO, which has had phenomenal impact, Folsom said. NECO proposed the sustainability fee that student voters approved to make recycling a permanent program on campus.
Smith said he also has been working to start a program where MSU and Bozeman High students visit elementary schools to teach the basics of recycling and sustainability. Now he’s working with the nonprofit Bozeman Youth Initiative to convert a school bus into a mobile greenhouse that can teach kids about plants, science, and how to grow herbs that taste good on pizza. MSU engineering and architecture students are working on that project.
In addition, Smith said he’s working with administrators on sustainability minor. And he won a small undergraduate research grant to go to Kenya, where the MSU student chapter of Engineers Without Borders has been installing clean water wells, to help design a business plan for communities to make the wells self-supporting.
Meanwhile, the UM Kaiman student newspaper reports that Katie Mazurek, 26, a law student and daughter-in-law of former state Attorney General Joe Mazurek, is the Missoula campus candidate for student regent.
