MSA to discuss budget, merger with student rep
Published April 13, 2004
Missouri Students Association senators will meet with the student representative to the Board of Curators tonight to discuss student issues.
The senators will meet with Shawn Gebhardt at 6 p.m. at Reynolds Alumni Center for dinner and a discussion, MSA Chief of Staff Joshua Judy said.
Judy said that though the deadline to R.S.V.P. for dinner has passed, the discussion is open to all students.
Senate Speaker Damon Ferlazzo said committee meetings, which normally are held on Tuesday nights, were canceled so senators could attend the dinner instead.
"We made the dinner a mandatory meeting because it's important for senators to speak to Shawn," Ferlazzo said. "He's in, if not the top, one of the top student positions in the entire system. It's important to foster the relationship between the curator and student governments."
Ferlazzo said the MSA committees can reschedule their meetings for later in the week if they choose to.
The Associated Students of the University of Missouri organized the dinner and discussion, Ferlazzo said.
Judy said he thinks some topics of conversation tonight will include tuition, additional per-credit-hour fees for individual schools and colleges and the addition of Northwest Missouri State University to the UM system.
"I'm curious to see what the board's thoughts are on these topics," he said.
Ferlazzo said the dinner will be beneficial because it will give senators a better idea of what is happening with these and other issues.
"Shawn's supposed to be our resource," he said. "This will give us an opportunity to know what Shawn thinks is important on a system level and what we should be doing at the student government level."
MSA Vice President Kara Heppermann said she and President Brian Laoruangroch talk to Gebhardt on a regular basis, but this is a good opportunity for other MSA members to communicate with Gebhardt as well.
"The student curator is the only student voice on the Board of Curators," Heppermann said. "The only way they know what students want is through Shawn."
Ferlazzo said he thinks the dinner with Gebhardt will allow MSA to improve its relationship with the student representative to the Board.
"I've only been here for two years, so I don't know what it was like before, but in my opinion, the relationship between the student curator and MSA hasn't been what it could be," he said.
Judy said the dinner will be beneficial for senators who never have had an opportunity to talk to the Gebhardt before.
"A lot of senators don't really know what to expect," he said. "They seem excited and are looking forward to it, but they don't have anything to gauge it against."
Judy said a smaller dinner with Gebhardt and MU student leaders was held before, but this is the first time it has been so heavily publicized.
"We've done things like this in the past, but not at this scale," he said.