Sweetgrass Society, Northern reach agreement on discrimination complaint

Montana State University-Northern has agreed to a settlement with the Sweetgrass Society, a Native American student group that filed a compliant last year alleging Northern had discriminated against them and violated the university’s free speech policy.

Northern and the Sweetgrass Society issued a press release Monday that said both parties signed onto a settlement that resolved the complaint that had been filed with the Montana Human Rights Bureau over Northern’s student senate painting over a step on the university’s Hello Walk.

The Montana American Civil Liberties Union, which represented the Sweetgrass Society in the complaint, commended the students.

“The Sweetgrass Society’s students activism, courage and character will have positive impacts for generations to come,” ACLU Montana Executive Director Caitlin Borgmann said in the release. “They have spoken up in the face of discrimination and have shown a path towards understanding, reconciliation and change.”

Borgmann also praised Northern, saying the university took the Sweetgrass Society’s concerns seriously and turned the racial discrimination concerns into an opportunity to push new critical conversations to listen, learn and stand with the students to create an equitable college experience for all students.

As a part of the settlement, Northern and the Associated Students of Montana State University-Northern, also named in the complaint, will craft and implement a diversity education program for Northern staff, faculty and students and improve outreach to Native Americans, the agreement says, including annual implicit bias training.

“Our goal was to ensure that all Indigenous students can feel this is their campus, that they can feel safe and that institutionally, all members of the campus recognize that the cultures, contributions and successes of the Native community enhance the MSU-Northern community,” Sweetgrass Society President Amy Murdock said in the release.

She said that by listening and coming together to condemn racism positive change and healing can, occur. Murdock added that the Sweetgrass Society invites all community members to stand together and is excited to stand with Northern moving forward as partners for change.

“We cannot move forward unless we all move forward together,” Murdock said in the release.

“We recognize the concerns of the Sweetgrass Society,” Northern Chancellor Greg Kegel said in the release. “As an administration, we are re-affirming our commitment to a welcoming environment for our Native students. Through this process, we have identified a number of opportunities to expand Northern’s relationship with Native students and to collaborate further with our regional tribes. I am very supportive of our Native students, and I am enthusiastic about the opportunities we have identified. They will benefit the entire student body.”

Under the agreement, the university will also create and implement a program on racial diversity issues including strengths and weaknesses and emphasizes the importance of Indian Education for All.

The agreement says a subcommittee composed of at least one representative of the Sweetgrass Society, the chancellor, the Sweetgrass Society faculty advisor and a member of the ASMSUN will be created to prepare recommendations for school-wide diversity training by the end of the 2017-2018 academic year.

Northern will also work to establish an advisory group with representatives from local Native American communities to collect and obtain input from local tribal leaders, the agreement says.

The advisory group, the agreement says, would also be responsible for implementing a program to regularly recognize Northern Native American alumni and their contributions.

The agreement also says Northern will provide opportunities for improved communication between ASMSUN and the Sweetgrass Society, conduct an analysis to determine if there are steps in the hiring process that disproportionately eliminate Native American applicants and identify ways for improving the recruitment and hiring process.

Northern will also seek input from the Sweetgrass Society and other students in revising its student conduct policies, the agreement says.

The agreement contains provisions to increase communication among student group advisors.

The complaint stems from an incident in November 2016 involving the Hello Walk, a staircase that runs from the Student Union Building between Donaldson Hall and Pershing Hall to the quad between between Cowan Hall, Vande Bogart Library, the Armory Gymnasium and the Hagener Science Building.

Sweetgrass Society members in September 2016 painted the #NODAPL hashtag on the walk to signify opposition to the Dakota Access Pipeline. The step was painted in addition to another step painted with the Sweetgrass Society logo.

Sweetgrass Society members later noticed that the #NODAPL step had been painted over.

Then-ASMSUN Senate President Randy Roeber later said he, then-vice president Collin Miller and ASMSUN student advisor Tammy Boles made the decision to paint over the step because the walk was not intended for what Roeber called political statements. He also said ASMSUN did not know what group had painted the step.

Sweetgrass Society members sent a letter to Roeber denying they had vandalized the step and asked that the #NODAPL logo be restored.

Sweetgrass Society members said at a Nov. 28 meeting of the university Inter-Organizational Council that they had complied with guidelines for painting the step, the compliant said.

At a Nov. 29 town hall meeting, Sweetgrass Society members started to read a prepared statement, but were unable to finish after a person who was recording the meeting interrupted to complain Senate members were being disrespectful and was arrested on a charge of disorderly conduct.

The meeting of the Senate was then adjourned.

Two days later, Kegel gave the Sweetgrass Society permission to restore the #NODAPL step that had been painted over. The step was restored April 18, the complaint said.

Northern’s treatment of Native Americans also received attention last spring, when a student heard a racist comment from a fellow student and complained to Northern’s dean of students.

The dean investigated the incident and determined that the student who made the comment presented no threat of physical violence, but that student was not allowed to attend classes on campus for the remainder of the semester and could not enter most buildings on campus but was allowed to use the campus gymnasium and remain on Northern’’s football team.

Some students, campus faculty and people within nearby communities said they believe the administration handled the situation poorly and it was a sign of a culture of institutional racism.

Kegel later said in a statement in April that the administration should have done more to calm the fear among students.

Northern has since worked to ease tensions with Native Americans. In November, Margarett Campbell, an Assiniboine from the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation and former Montana state legislator, was hired in November as a new director of Indian Education/ tribal liaison and advisor to the chancellor.

In her role, Campbell will help Northern faculty integrate Indian Education for All into university lessons, curriculum and programs, help establish relationships with tribes and help Northern recruit and retain more American Indian students.