Senate to host Alden
Published March 18, 2008
MSA senators plan to discuss the use of all-sports passes with Athletic Director Mike Alden at the full Senate meeting Wednesday night.
Senators hope to discuss whether the Athletic Department would consider allowing all-sports passes to be put on student identification cards, so students can have “swipe” access rather than needing to keep track of individual tickets, Missouri Students Association Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said.
Mays said MSA has discussed the idea with the Athletic Department in the past and wants to see if any progress has been made. Although no bill has been filed as of press time to formally request the action, Mays said a bill might be filed Tuesday at the meeting to reiterate MSA’s stance.
Mays said Senate will also consider a resolution to support the Textbook Transparency Act in the Missouri House of Representatives.
Mays said MSA Senate previously passed a resolution supporting the act, and while the new resolution would reconfirm Senate’s support for the act, it might have certain wording changes.
Mays said the wording at issue is the use of “suggested retail price” in the Act, referencing what textbook pricing system would be made available by the bill. The MSA Senate bill states MSA supports the wording “estimated wholesale price” or “price at which the publisher makes the products available to the public.” Mays said this wording separates publishers and bookstores better because “suggested retail price” mixes bookstore pricing with publishers’ pricing.
“If we take wholesale price, it should more clearly identify where the responsibility for book pricing lies,” he said. “We want to see the roles of bookstores and publishers as distinguished as possible.”
Mays said MSA Senate is supporting this wording as a reaction to changes made to the Textbook Transparency Act by the House Higher Education Committee.
The MSA Senate resolution also would establish a commitment from MSA to work with MU’s Faculty Council to create a policy for academic departments to request textbook prices from publishers.
The Missouri House Budget Committee is expected to discuss the Textbook Transparency Act next week, and Mays said he hopes Senate will pass the resolution so students’ opinion could be voiced at the hearing.
