by Travis Mateer

The University of Montana is the obvious topic of focus for today’s episode of Zoom Town because the warmth from the figurative dumpster fire will be a nice contrast to the cold that has arrived and the snow that will soon blanket the ground.

The President of UM, Seth Bodnar, has been the target of litigation because of the work environment he has created. This news broke in August and continues to simmer:

In the complaint, the plaintiffs condemn what they describe as a “good ol’ boys club” fostered at the university and strengthened under the leadership of UM President Seth Bodnar. Now, more than a dozen other women have come forward with similar allegations.

After this litigation hit the headlines, the law school at the University of Montana was next up for controversy with how it was allegedly handling accusations of sexual impropriety. This controversy focuses primarily on Mayoral candidate, Jacob Elder.

Here’s an excerpt of the reporting:

Elder, who has not been charged with any crimes, maintained his innocence to the Daily Montanan in the May 5 phone call and later on social media. Elder did not respond to either a Sept. 10 email requesting an interview or message sent on his campaign website. 

When reached by phone Sept. 13, Elder said he had shared the Daily Montanan’s message with his lawyer. However, he declined to answer questions for this story. He did not respond to a Sept. 26 email or message to his campaign website requesting comment on the allegations of rape and sexual assault.

Friday, UM confirmed Elder remains enrolled at the School of Law.

The woman also said at the law school, race plays a role in the dynamics. In the letter, she said that Elder, a Black man from Liberia, told her that if she told anyone he had raped her, “he would make it known that I was just a ‘small-town, sheltered racist white girl.’” In the meantime, she said the law school has propped him up in its media outreach.

Wowzers. Jacob Elder is really making a splash in his adopted community of Missoula, dragging UM into a Rape Capitol 2.0 situation that is sure to impact the enrollment crisis Seth Bodnar has failed to fix.

And now for the latest.

A computer science professor who didn’t get the WOKE memo is in hot water after some of his (now deleted) blog posts got the attention of the Kaimin. Here’s the kind of crap this dude was writing about:

In a different blog post, Smith wrote: “If you are in your peak, seek a woman in hers. This means you should be dating women who are as close to 18 as you can get, whatever age you are.” 

“…The younger a woman is, the more likely she is not jaded, the more positive energy she will have, and the more years you will have with her before rolling the dice of the hormonal changes that might turn her into a completely different woman than you married.”

I think the unsolicited dating advice from this computer science professor is pretty hilarious, but obviously a president under fire for running a “good ol’ boys club” is NOT going to be amused, at least publicly, which is why Bodnar is saying shit like this:

“I am personally disgusted by the homophobic and misogynistic views that were reported in the Montana Kaimin,” Bodnar said in the email statement. “I have directed the appropriate university officials to take immediate action to address this matter through investigatory and supportive measures.”

What kind of University officials is THE BOD sending? For Rob Smith’s sake, I hope it’s some physically fit hotties, because that might make the sting of being a sacrificial lamb for the boys club a little less painful.

Getting rid of Rob Smith will be easy. Deciding who to cast a vote for to lead this Zoom Town dumpster fire, on the other hand, is going to be VERY hard.

Either vote for the alcoholic incumbent who presided over the last UM sex assault scandal while allowing the homeless/housing crisis to worsen year after year as he spends millions in public financing on bridges to nowhere and bullshit communication plans, or vote for the young, black refugee from Liberia who has been fighting accusations of sexual impropriety since before the primary that reduced Engen’s competition to one heavily damaged candidate.

Or maybe there’s a THIRD OPTION.

To find out more, you’ll have to listen to today’s episode of Zoom Town. I’ll be recording the episode with Tim Adams today, and it should be available later this afternoon.

Thanks for reading!