Mays re-elected Senate speaker

By Anna Koeppel

Published Feb. 29, 2008

Missouri Students Association Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays’ was re-elected this past Wednesday after a year of leadership. He was elected unanimously and with no opposition.

Mays has served as speaker since February 2007, when he replaced outgoing Speaker Davie Holt.

Senate Operations Committee Chairman Corey Gibson nominated Mays for the position at Wednesday’s meeting. According to Senate rules, nominations can be taken at the meeting of and the meeting before the election. No one was nominated at the Feb. 13 Senate meeting.

Upon his nomination, Mays distributed a list of bills passed by the Senate in the last year.

He spoke to several bills’ impact and the status of their respective issues.

He cited an act to update the Articles of Cooperation with Four Front, which the Senate passed on Jan. 30, and a resolution to establish a framework for further student health fee recommendations as part of his accomplishments.

The resolution called for a comprehensive student health guide and a long-term plan to reduce the percentage of the Student Health Center budget that relies on student fees.

In a previous Maneater report, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs said she will send MSA and Student Fee Review Committee health center fee recommendations to the UM system Board of Curators before its April 4 meeting.

At Wednesday’s Senate meeting, Mays said he hopes there will be no more “filtering” of student opinion in the student fee recommendation process.

After Mays spoke, Gibson asked for discussion and dissent of Mays’ nomination, which resulted in laughter from those in attendance.

Mays left the room for voting, and the Senate voted to approve him by acclamation. When Gibson asked if there was any dissent, again his question was met with laughter.

Before the election, the Senate confirmed several candidates for At-Large Senator, including interim Multicultural Issues Chairwoman Jennifer Claxton.

Claxton replaced Chairwoman Melissa Vought, who resigned two weeks ago.

Claxton said one of her goals as chairwoman is to get a concrete direction on the movement to add a diversity course to graduation requirements.

“I think people have decided what they want, and they aren’t listening to anyone else,” she said. “That’s not going to get it done.”

Claxton said she also plans to focus on a Missouri ballot initiative that would ban affirmative action.

She expressed concern that if it passes the initiative would do away with programs such as the Chancellor’s Diversity Initiative and diversity-based scholarships.

“It affects the greater student body,” she said. “Diversity and multiculturalism are a part of our lives.”

Claxton said she has scheduled a town hall-style meeting for students to discuss multicultural issues in MSA. All students are welcome, but Claxton said she wants to focus on inviting members of minority groups MSA doesn’t often work with.

“For too long, MSA has relied on speaking to presidents, representatives and chairs of groups, but they don’t actually go to meetings,” she said. “I want to go straight to the source.”