Senators want change on student rep. bill

By Jedd Rosche

Published March 2, 2007

A bill that failed to pass in the General Assembly two years in a row might catch a third wind, thanks in part to a change in vocabulary and a Facebook interest group.

The bill in question gives one student representative the right to vote with the UM system Board of Curators, the UM system's nine-member governing body.

On Thursday, two state senators said they would be willing to support the bill if the bill's authors added language limiting what the student could vote on.

Sen. Yvonne Wilson, D-Kansas City, and Senate Minority Leader Maida Coleman, D-St. Louis, separately agreed to vote "yes" on the bill if student representatives were legally removed from personnel decisions.

Coleman said the concept of the bill is acceptable.

"It's a good idea to get students involved with the inner workings of any higher education institution," Coleman said.

She said she had followed the debate and that her only concern was with student and faculty relations.

"I am very supportive of the bill if they would not allow students to vote on the personnel issues," Coleman said.

Wilson agreed with Coleman, and that her response to the bill has been apparent since the start.

"My opinion on the issue remains the same," Wilson said. "The senators know my position. I feel the student representative should be allowed to vote on everything except personnel issues."

Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, one of the bill's architects, wants to see students have the right to remove themselves from a vote on personnel issues.

Graham's Chief of Staff Ted Farnen said Graham had worked with other legislators on both the Senate and House version of the bill. Farnen said administrators and legislators alike should not be afraid the issue.

"This is something the Board of Curators should not fear," Farnen said. "This is an all-inclusive bill."

Megan Block, the Associated Students of the University of Missouri legislative director, said being legally restricted from voting on personnel decisions would not be an issue.

"An amendment like that would be fine," Block said. "The language might be redundant, but what matters is that it passes committee."

Block said the vote on the bill in the House could be approved or disapproved as early as Tuesday night, during a 5 p.m. Higher Education Committee meeting. She said time for the vote was subject to change.

Committee vice chairman David Pearce, R-Warrensburg, doubts the bill's success.

"I don't see it passing," Pearce said.

He said he's seen the bill attempt to come through before and he opposes giving students a vote because their participation might be a conflict of interest.

"These should be lay boards," Pearce said. "When you start dictating who should be involved, it hurts the goals of the lay board."

Pearce used the analogy of local school boards, where most organizations prohibited teachers from joining.

UM system president Elson Floyd shared Pearce's doubt about the bill's potential success.

"I don't want to pour cold water on it, but it's going to be very difficult for a student curator to have a vote on the board in a traditional sense and replace one of the existing or future curators based on the Congressional district," Floyd said.

Missouri has nine Congressional districts, with one curator representing each.

ASUM legislative intern Craig Stevenson has helped the organization to discuss the bill with Pearce on Feb 27.

After Pearce announced his opposition to the "student curator" bill, Stevenson dedicated his work to creating a list of students who supported the bill's passing. He tried to unite students the best way he knew how: by creating a Facebook interest group.

Stevenson launched the "Students For A Vote On Our Governing Boards" group on Feb. 22. In the past week, it gained 339 members.

"We've had a very good response all across the state," Stevenson said.

Stevenson said he would deliver the list to the House Higher Education committee during the next two weeks.