Senate unanimously approves fee recommendation
Published March 7, 2008
Wednesday night, the Missouri Students Association Senate passed a resolution recommending a $3.50 fee increase for the Student Health Center for fiscal year 2009. The recommendation was 16 cents lower than what the health center asked for at the last UM system Board of Curators meeting; $3.66 would have matched the maximum increase of 4.1 percent allowed by the inflationary cap. In the resolution, MSA also stated the Student Health Center should limit its spending on advertising to save money. Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays said the resolution had the unanimous support of the Student Fee Review Committee. He said MSA and SFRC have a strong case to limit the fee increase. The resolution also recommended further collaboration between the Student Health Center, Counseling Center and Wellness Resource Center. The Senate meeting Wednesday night was moved up a week to pass a resolution about the fee in time to submit it to the UM system Board of Curators. Mays said MSA had to submit a recommendation to Scroggs by March 5 so she could send it to the board for consideration at its next meeting, which will be held April 3 and 4 in Rolla. The board was set to approve the fee at its Feb. 1 meeting, but MSA representatives noticed a discrepancy between what they approved in a resolution on Nov. 28 and what was presented to the board. MSA originally approved a fee increase of only $2.32, but the documents presented to the curators said MSA supported the increase of 4.1 percent to $3.66. MSA Budget Committee Chairman Aaron Wynhausen said the resolution passed Wednesday night dealt specifically with advertising money because it was the only information MSA was able to get regarding the health center’s budget. “They never provided a line-item budget to say what they’ll spend the money specifically on,” he said. Mays said the resolution demonstrates that MSA and SFRC know how to review a budget and offer solutions to problems. Mays said the next step in the process is to ensure the students’ voice on the issue is properly presented to the chancellor and Board of Curators. He said that as the Senate speaker, it is his responsibility to follow through on legislation and see that it is enacted properly. “I really appreciate everybody hanging together on this one,” he said. “SFRC has been through a lot in the last week and this almost fell apart a few times, but we got a consensus to hold the Health Center under inflation. Now I’ll do my best to make sure it has an impact.”
Senate passes disability services bill
Also at the meeting Wednesday night, the Senate passed a resolution supporting a new policy the Office of Disability Services hopes to enact that would allow some students with disabilities to take fewer hours and still be considered full-time students. The Office of Disability Services would like to allow some students to be considered full-time if they only take nine hours rather than the required 12; for graduate students the requirement would be decreased from nine to six hours. Disability Services Interim Director Barbara Hammer was at the meeting to answer senators’ questions.
