The purpose of your time at a university may be related to education of some sort, but like every big system with many moving parts there is always much, much more. You've got to spend your time outside of class and studying doing something, right? This is where student organizations come into play.
There is a student club out there for (almost) every interest, and for this piece I will be highlighting one in particular, and it might very well be the most chill group on campus:
Our official name is the Montana State University Wilderness Association, but most people refer to us as either Wilderness Club, Wild Club, MSU Wild, or even just Wild.
MSU Wild is one of two student chapters (there is also a chapter at UM in Missoula) of the non-profit Montana Wilderness Association, a grassroots non-profit dedicated to keeping the vast expanses of federally controlled public lands accessible to the general population. And while most of what MWA does revolves around working to protect public lands in Montana through advocacy and the government, there is still plenty of time spent enjoying these lands themselves.
Standing under the MSU Wild tent at Catapalooza this week, the most common questions that came up were "what are you guys?" or "so what do you DO exactly?". Being a club with such a broad focus, these are very understandable thing to wonder about. MSU Wild is primarily a 'get outside' club, and I like to refer to it as outdoorsy greek life (without all the bad stereotypes associated with greek life). We take advantage of as many opportunities as possible to enjoy the natural beauty surrounding Bozeman in pretty much as many ways as possible.
To start off, the club has evening potlucks twice a month to just hang out and discuss what events are happening in the coming weeks. What we discuss then becomes fun events for the following weeks. Most adventures consist of either afternoon hiking or weekend camping/backpacking in different areas, with an occasional climbing trip as well. As the snow rolls in, trips will include snowshoeing, sledding, winter camping, or possibly even backcountry skiing. If members have a suggestion for a trip, the officers try to find a way of making it happen.
Wild also hosts an annual spring break trip, with the previous two years heading down to Death Valley National Park and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, respectively.
But MSU Wild doesn't stop at adventures, lots of what the club does relates back to the greater Montana Wilderness Association. There are plenty of opportunities to get involved with public land advocacy through the state government, and volunteering to support the organization in a variety of ways.
Whether you want to hike, camp, backpack, ski, climb, snowshoe, raft, protest, volunteer, or even something entirely different. As long as it's outside, MSU Wild is bound to have something for you.
A big thank you to the MSU Wild officers for allowing the Triathlon Club to share a part of your tent space at Catapalooza. We appreciate it.
