Issue 4: MSA Budget

Every issue, The Maneater will choose a topic important to students and ask the Missouri Students Association presidential candidates to explain what they plan to do about it.

By Erica Zucco and Gwen Daniels

Published Oct. 26, 2007

Dustin Barker and Jessica Ekhoff

Missouri Students Association presidential candidate Dustin Barker and vice president candidate Jessica Ekhoff said they feel the key to an effective budget is considering funds in light of the current school year and what those funds can do for students in the future, rather than revisiting the past.

"The idea of bringing in accounting students isn't necessarily something we'd want to do," Barker said. "Accountants don't build budgets. It's a post-hoc field where they check back expenditures and aren't focused on constructing budgets."

Barker and Ekhoff said they feel Ekhoff's experiences as vice chairwoman of administration for the Organizational Resource Group will help her better serve the student body.

"Jessica has worked with ORG and the Student Organization Allocations Committee to allocate funds to more than 500 organizations on campus," Barker said. "She understands the needs of students."

Barker and Ekhoff said they feel being proactive is the best way to keep a balanced and effective budget.

"We could have started saving for the Brady project earlier," Barker said. "We need to think forward, and Ekhoff and I understand that."

Jim Kelly and Chelsea Johnson

MSA Presidential candidate Jim Kelley and vice presidential candidate Chelsea Johnson plan to establish a team of honors accounting students to work alongside the MSA Budget Committee, Johnson said.

Accounting students will offer a fresh perspective on budgeting, she said.

"Many of the senators who join budget committee want to be involved, but they won't really know what kind of questions to ask," Johnson said. "The accounting students will be able to talk to the budget committee with questions they have and open their minds a little bit."

The slate said the new group would review the $1.35 million budget independently from the Budget Committee but confer periodically. The group would be unaffiliated with MSA and present an external point of view.

"This lets all the students know that we're trying as hard as we can to use their student fees responsibly and in a way they'd want them to be used," Johnson said.