Senate meeting passes resolutions and bills

Resolutions about textbook deadlines and 'swipe-in' ticket procedures were passed.

By Jenna Youngs

Published April 11, 2008

Wednesday's Missouri Students Association Senate meeting featured two position confirmations, updates about various upcoming events and the passage of a number of resolutions and bills, including resolutions about the athletic department's ticketing plan, a campaign to encourage professors to turn in textbook adoption plans on time and an act to require the BEC handbook to be approved by full Senate and require voting application trials.

Phyllis Williams, MSA Academic Affairs chairwoman, presented a resolution passed by the Senate to support a campaign to remind professors to turn in book adoption forms by the April 15 deadline the University Bookstore has set. If professors turn in their forms by then, the bookstore can guarantee students selling back books that have been adopted for next year 50 percent of the cost of the book, Williams said.

Williams said the Academic Affairs committee has already been working on the campaign with bookstore representatives. Earlier this week, senators passed out about 1,000 T-shirts to students to wear to class to remind professors to turn in adoption forms. The resolution also included an execution clause that the Academic Affairs chairperson would report the results of the campaign to the Senate in the fall.

The Senate also approved a resolution supporting the athletic department's plan to allow "swipe" access with student identification cards for All-Sports Passes by fall 2009. During a Senate meeting before spring break, athletic department Director Mike Alden and Director of Ticket Operations Marty Finn presented the department's plan to allow students to purchase All-Sports Passes online by fall 2008 and to allow the swipe access the following year. Finn said the department has been updating its computer system to allow for the changes. The resolution presented by the Campus and Community Relations Committee supported these changes and also requires the Campus and Community Relations Committee to monitor the Athletic Department's progress.

Senate Speaker Jonathan Mays presented an act to require the Senate to approve the Board of Elections Commissioners' election handbooks and to require a test of the voting application used in elections. Previously, the handbook needed to be approved by only the Operations Committee. Mays said the bill was a reaction to problems with this year's Senate election, but uses most of the same text from a bill that tabled during last year's Senate session. A provision included in the bill also requires that the BEC list the specific time and dates of at least three candidate training sessions. He said the measures improve accountability on the part of the BEC to ensure a smooth election process. The Senate approved the bill, with one senator abstaining from the vote.

The Senate approved junior Jonathan Sandhu as next year's Student Court chief justice and freshman Seth Botts to serve as the Student Fee Review Committee chairman.

The Senate also discussed next year's budget at length, but tabled a vote on it to allow senators a week to look through it.