Students lined the wall Wednesday to speak in support of two environmental resolutions before ASUM, but after public comment, the student senate delayed debate on the issues for nearly three hours because of disagreements about travel funding requests.
Five hours into the meeting, President Matt Fennell asked senators to move forward with the 18 requests to discuss the resolutions.
"We had a lot of students show up to support these resolutions," Fennell said. "This has gone beyond absurd. We need to compromise now."
His call was acknowledged and the senate reached debate on the two bills by 11:30 p.m.
The first resolution asked for ASUM to support a federal bill introduced by Sen. Jon Tester that would create 670,000 acres of new wilderness area in Montana.
"It's setting a new trend in land management," said Zack Porter, an intern for the Montana Wilderness Association, which supports the bill.
Porter, a senior in geography, said the bill addresses a gridlock of public lands in Montana that currently inhibit habitat restoration, responsible timber harvests and access for recreational use.
A representative from Tester's Missoula office who helped develop the federal legislation had to leave before she was asked to speak about the bill because the meeting was taking so long.
The resolution was passed unanimously after a brief discussion about its relation to students.
Considered next was a resolution offered by the student group UM Climate Action Now! asking ASUM to encourage Montana congressmen to pass climate-conscious legislation before the United Nation's Climate Change Conference in December to ensure the United States' role as a leader.
Owen Weber, the author of the resolution, made a brief statement during public comment but was unable to stay for the senate's debate, after which the resolution was sent back to committee.
Many senators were hesitant to write letters to Montana congressmen until the resolution was rewritten to be more specific. The bill was recommitted to allow for revision.
"I have a real problem with this resolution because it is incredibly vague," Fennell said. "You have a lot of passion and a lot of ideas, but if this is going to go through, it needs some specificity."
Porter, who also is a member of Climate Action Now!, said that while the decision was shocking, it could still be for the best.
"It was clear that the senate endorsed the resolution," he said. "What they wanted was better than what we wanted in some ways.
"During the meeting's closing comments, many senators discussed the earlier debate on establishing percentage-based procedures for determining how much money to grant student groups filing requests.
ASUM Business Manager and chair of the Budget and Finance Committee Jake Armstrong said the Senate would discuss the suggestions at its next meeting and also reminded senators to consider the larger budget when debating funding issues.
"We need to look inside ourselves and figure out what we mean by fiscally responsible," Armstrong said. "If ASUM groups feel slighted, I'm sorry, that's too bad. Everyone's going to feel slighted because we simply do not have enough money to make everyone happy."
The meeting ended at 12:03 a.m. after 6 hours of debate.
- Jayme Fraser