Lawmakers mixed on student curator vote
Published Feb. 8, 2005
Columbia lawmakers had mixed reactions to a bill that would grant voting powers to the student representative to the UM system Board of Curators.
House Bill 440, sponsored by Rep. Bryan Pratt, R-Blue Springs, has 21 co-sponsors, one of whom is Rep. Judy Baker, D-Columbia.
Three of the bill's co-sponsors are on the House Higher Education Committee. None of the committee members hails from Columbia.
The bill would give voting powers to the student representative on various university governing boards, including the UM system, Southwest Missouri State University and Truman State University.
Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, sponsored a similar bill two years ago when he was a member of the House of Representatives. The bill passed the House but did not leave the Senate Education Committee.
Graham, now a member of the Senate Education Committee, said he would still support the idea.
"Especially at a time when students are bearing such a high cost of their higher education, I think they ought to have a say in matters concerning their university," Graham said.
Unlike other members of the Columbia delegation, Rep. Ed Robb, R-Columbia, said he would vote against the bill.
"The only reason I would be against it is because of the lack of experience on the part of the potential student member," Robb said. "If it was just policy issues, it wouldn't make that much of a difference."
Robb said many of the decisions the Board of Curators votes on deal with financial and personnel issues. He said these topics put students at a distinct disadvantage compared with the other members.
Graham, who attended the University of Illinois, said his alma mater has had a voting student representative for years.
ASUM pushes for
'student curator' vote
The Associated Students of the University of Missouri is one of the major lobbying groups associated with the bill to give student representatives a vote.
ASUM Legislative Director Matt Pierson, who is also a columnist for The Maneater, said ASUM was instrumental in getting the bill filed in Jefferson City.
"The voting student curator is essentially ASUM's idea" we've been pushing for it for years," Pierson said. "We've been a very active force in getting this bill introduced."
University of Missouri-St. Louis senior Charles Stadtlander is the main lobbyist working on the bill for ASUM.
"I'm actually the one who got the bill drafted and I got the sponsor and co-sponsors," Stadtlander said. "I'm very excited, because I wanted it to be bipartisan, and we have pretty evenly divided Republicans and Democrats."
Pierson said this issue has been on ASUM's agenda for some time.
"We originally pushed for a student on the Board of Curators in 1984," Pierson said. "They've shown for 21 years now that they have the maturity and the responsibility necessary to handle the position of being a student curator."
Pierson said rising tuition costs show students should have more of a voice on the board.
"I think they're starting to reach a point where if we're starting to pay for over half of our own education, we ought to at least have one vote," Pierson said.
Although Stadtlander said he has spent more than 100 hours on the bill, he said ASUM Executive Director Beth Tankersley-Bankhead and ASUM Assistant Legislative Director Scott Johnson have been supportive.
Pierson said Pratt has been an effective sponsor.
"He's been a great advocate for students the entire time he is (in Jefferson City), and he's had a wonderful working relationship with ASUM," Pierson said. "He's got a natural interest in pushing for student issues."
Pierson said ASUM is still looking for a Senate sponsor for the bill. "Once we get that, we'll feel more confident and a little more relieved."
' staff writer Lou Rowe contributed to this report.
