Senate rejects name-change bill, discusses budget

By Jenna Youngs

Published April 2, 2004

The Missouri Students Association will not change its name this year after senators voted on the issue Wednesday night.

Sixty percent of the senators present favored a bill to add a referendum to April's special election that would change the name of the organization to the Missouri Student Government Association, but a two-thirds approval was required.

Senate Clerk and bill co-sponsor Greg Chase said the name change would have helped students identify MSA as the governmental body representing students.

"It's very unfortunate that this did not pass," Chase said. "It definitely would have helped students, especially new freshmen, identify what we are. An opportunity to end the cycle of confusion was overlooked."

In a speech of opposition, Sen. Danny French said changing the name to MSGA would not have much of an impact on student awareness of the organization. French also said changing the name to include the word "government" wouldn't represent all members of the association.

"As the name says now, everyone is a part of MSA: us, (Speaker) Damon (Ferlazzo), all the students out there," he said. "We're all a part of MSA because it's the Missouri Students Association. If we change ourselves to the Mizzou Student Government Association, we remove one level from the students."

French said he did not think the name change is a bad idea, but he said he has not heard any good arguments for it.

"The two major arguments seem to be that if MSA is called MSGA, students will automatically know more about student government and that employers will know what students are talking about when they put &#39MSA senator' on their résumés," he said. "The only thing students know about MSA if it changes its name that they do not know now is that the new MSGA does government stuff. Regarding the second argument, MSA should be focusing on serving and representing the student body, not clarifying the résumés of its members."

Chase said he thought the arguments against the bill were weak, and he said he was surprised by the opposition to the bill.

"This had passed the Senate before, and it almost passed a vote a few years ago," Chase said. "It looked like it was something students wanted. It's something the student body should get to decide. This bill would have allowed them to vote."

The goal of the name change was not to enhance senators' résumés, Chase said.

"I don't think any of us are in this to just to pad our résumés," he said. "We're in MSA to help students have a voice on campus. This is for the students."

Senate begins budget discussions

Matthew Sokoloff, chairman of the Student Fee Review Committee, introduced the MSA budget to the Senate at the meeting. Vice President Kara Heppermann prepared the budget, which the committee approved.

Sokoloff answered a few questions about the budget Wednesday night. The Senate will discuss the budget further at its next meeting, April 14.

"There have to be two meetings about the budget," Sokoloff said. "The senators just received copies of the budget and haven't had much opportunity to review it. I have a feeling many more questions will come up throughout the next couple of weeks."