Luetkemeyer meets with former candidates

The new MSA leader will send an e-mail to students with ideas to decide which issues to tackle first.

By Jenna Youngs

Published Jan. 21, 2005

Newly elected Missouri Students Association President Tony Luetkemeyer wants advice.

On Sunday night, he gathered his competition from the fall presidential election to discuss platform ideas they would like to see carried out during Luetkemeyer's term.

Former presidential candidates Matt Sokoloff, whom Luetkemeyer appointed as the new director of the Department of Student Services, and Andy Fluhart met with Luetkemeyer to discuss ideas such as a "one-stop student service center" and keychain call boxes for students.

"It went really well considering only two other candidates showed up," Luetkemeyer said. "I've been in contact via the phone and Internet with other candidates, so I knew some of them couldn't show up, but I had talked to them about their ideas."

Luetkemeyer said he is going to take the ideas swapped at the meeting and compose a poll that will be sent to students to find out what they would like him to work on.

"The meeting was an opportunity to come back to the table and get ideas out there," he said. "Our platform issues didn't cover everything. We're going to work on as many issues as possible. No. 1: We're going to work on our issues, but students supported other ideas as well."

One idea discussed at length during the meeting was Fluhart's keychain call box.

Fluhart said the idea is simply too costly to pursue if Luetkemeyer is going to add blue light emergency telephones around the campus.

"It has a higher start-up expense, but in the long run it'll probably be cheaper than blue lights," Fluhart said.

Keychain call boxes are personal tracking devices that, if activated, would tell police the location of a student in possible trouble.

"It would be optional for all students but would be pushed for incoming freshmen," he said.

Luetkemeyer said his concerns with the keychain call box idea include fears the GPS signal wouldn't be strong enough. He also said emergency telephones across campus make people feel safe.

Vice president, Cheryl Tomes said she plans to meet with Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, about funding for additional emergency telephones in Greektown, an area populated by many students but not technically on campus.

"We're going to see if we can get something started," she said.

Other ideas discussed at the meeting included fixing problems with parking in Greektown and reallocating the Department of Student Activities' budget to give more money to MUTV.

Fluhart also told Luetkemeyer to make sure his time in office effectively spent.

"Don't get time-sucked into meetings," he said. "Use the Senate. Get them to work for you, and delegate some things to them."

Luetkemeyer said a poll will go out to students as soon as the server on which elections are held is open.

"We wanted to send it out on Tuesday, but another organization is using the voter server," he said. "The poll will serve as a priorities list. The No. 1 things students want us to do are what we'll work on first."