New argument for student curator finds support

By Jewels Phraner

Published Feb. 8, 2008

A bill that would give a student a voting seat on the Board of Curators, the UM system’s governing board, has been proposed for many years. This year, it has a new twist.

The new version of the bill would solve a problem that will likely plague the Missouri General Assembly after the 2010 census congressional redistricting.

Missouri is expected to lose a congressional district, which would bring the state down to eight districts. But the Missouri Constitution requires the Board of Curators to have nine seats, and the Missouri Revised Statutes require no more than one representative from each district.

The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Chuck Graham, D-Columbia, said if Missouri lost a district, either the ninth seat would have to rotate among districts or the constitution would have to be amended.

“The current law says that there is one curator for each district, but if we lost a seat we would be stuck trying to fill that ninth seat that is also required by law,” he said. “Giving the ninth seat to the student curator would solve that problem.”

The bill would only go into effect if Missouri loses the district, which Graham said makes it more likely to pass.

The Senate’s Education Committee will have a hearing next Wednesday, Feb. 13, to discuss the issue.

MU law student Tony Luetkemeyer serves as the student representative to the Board of Curators, but does not have a vote.

Luetkemeyer said he has supported legislation that gives a voting seat to a student representative for several years and will testify at the Feb. 13 hearing.

“I’ve been very fortunate to work with a group of people who have listened and taken what I have said into consideration when making their decisions,” Luetkemeyer said, referring to the nine curators. “But there’s no guarantee that a future student curator will have the same sort of support. This ensures the student voice is always heard.”

The Associated Students of the University of Missouri, the UM system’s student lobbying organization, is in support of the bill as well.

“ASUM has conducted numerous polls throughout the years and has had consistent results that show that 94, 95, 96 percent of students are in support of a voting position for the student curator,” ASUM Legislative Director Craig Stevenson said. “It’s a really interesting bill, because we have solid student support when we explain what the Board of Curators do.”

Stevenson said the bill is more likely to pass because of its dependency on the loss of a congressional seat.

“I think it will diminish the opposition that we’ve heard in the past,” he said. “I’ve talked to a few representatives who in the past have had reservations on the bill. One of their main concerns was that the student curator would take the place of an existing curator, which won’t be an issue with this bill.”

On Jan. 31, the Missouri House of Representatives read a similar bill sponsored by Speaker Pro Tem Bryan Pratt, R-Blue Springs, for a second time, but no hearing is scheduled.