Organizers of a celebration planned for this fall to recognize important women in Montana State University’s history are seeking nominations from the public.
 
The MSU President’s Commission on the Status of University Women is seeking candidates for its list of “Extraordinary Ordinary Women of Montana State University.” As part of the university’s yearlong quasquicentennial celebration, the commission will recognize 125 women who have been pivotal to MSU’s past, present or future at a reception Nov. 2.



“We want to shine a light of recognition and appreciation on the many women who have had essential roles in the university, from its formation more than 125 years ago, through time,” said MSU President Waded Cruzado. “We would like members of MSU’s community who have been inspired by women in the university to let us know who these women are, whether they worked outside of the spotlight or in it.”

Chatanika Stoop, a member of the PCOSUW committee organizing the event, said women have been central to the university’s development. After all, she said, it was prominent women in the Bozeman community who helped bring Montana’s land-grant college to Bozeman, and for 125 years MSU women have worked to improve the status of women at the institution, around Montana and across the country.

Stoop said that the names of some of those pivotal women are well-known, such as Una Herrick, MSU’s first dean of women, who taught women skills to promote their financial independence in the 1920s, or Cruzado, the university’s first female president. Stoop said that the committee wants to acknowledge the dozens more women who have worked, and continue to work, toward discovering and eliminating institutional barriers to the success of women.

“In this year of celebrating MSU’s 125th anniversary, the PCOSUW is honoring women leaders, problem solvers and innovators from today and throughout MSU’s history,” Stoop said.
 
Nominations should include a name, affiliation with MSU, how she had an impact on the status of women and inspired others by her example. For more information or to submit a nomination, visit montana.edu/125women. Nominations will be accepted until May 15, and living honorees will be notified in June.

“We invite everyone to celebrate a woman in his or her life by nominating them as an ‘Extraordinary Ordinary Woman’ of Montana State University,” Stoop said.