Senate votes down student curator bill

By Joey Soto

Published Sept. 10, 2008

An attempt to override the governor's veto of a bill that would give voting rights to a student on the UM system's governing board failed Wednesday in the state Senate.

The bill would have granted voting rights to the student representative on the UM system Board of Curators if Missouri lost a congressional district in 2010.

The Associated Students of the University of Missouri, a student-lobbying group, worked to get the bill passed during the General Assembly's regular session this year. After it passed with overwhelming majorities in the House and Senate, Gov. Matt Blunt vetoed the bill in July.

ASUM board chairman Craig Stevenson spent Wednesday morning at the Capitol hoping to see legislators override the veto, but said the outcome did not come as a shock.

"It doesn't really surprise me," Stevenson said. "It's an uphill battle to override a veto, and when the Republican sitting governor vetoes a bill, the Republican majority is going to be hesitant to override the bill even if it did pass in the first place."

In 2005 a similar bill never reached the governor's desk after being defeated in the legislature. Stevenson said he attributes his disappointment to the early success the bill saw this spring.

"Unfortunately it came as close as it comes to becoming law but it didn't," he said.

ASUM held a news conference Tuesday to gather last-minute support for the override.

The override proposal needed 23 senators' approval to advance to the House for further consideration. The bill received 31 votes when passed in the Senate earlier this year. Wednesday's vote showed minimal bipartisanship, Stevenson said.

"It was basically a party-lined vote," Stevenson said. "We only had two Republicans vote to override the" veto.

All 14 Democrats voted to override the veto, and two Republicans joined them: Sen. Jason Crowell, R-Cape Girardeau, and Sen. Kevin Engler, R-Farmington.

In 2005, Engler sponsored a similar bill granting voting rights to the "student curator." Engler said he thinks having a voice for the students is vital to respecting them.

"I think the main reason is you ought to have someone who is involved with the process - someone that's going to school, paying the fees, paying tuition, involved with professors and students," Engler said. "Unless you give them a vote, you don't give them respect."

As the legislative session neared its end, curators conducted a special meeting May 12 to pass a resolution opposing the bill. Among their objections, curators said the "student curator" is too inexperienced.

Engler compared the current status of the "student curator" to that of a senator without the ability to vote.

"If we had someone in the Senate that could just listen and couldn't vote, you wouldn't respect them," Engler said.

In response to one of the concerns surrounding the bill, Engler looked back on his past experience in college. Engler said inexperience was not a legitimate rationale for vetoing the bill.

"I was involved in college and I thought I had as much intellect to make informed decisions as someone who was removed from the campus and would come in once a month for a meeting," Engler said.

Engler said Crowell "believes students should have involvement with the administration of the school they attend."

Tony Luetkemeyer, the current "student curator," said he would continue to push for student voting rights alongside ASUM.

"Anything the ASUM needs in terms of my advocacy or my support I am ready and willing to give," Luetkemeyer said.

Stevenson said ASUM would continue to lobby for the "student curator" vote next year.

"We lose today, the students, myself and the ASUM," he said. "But when I leave the Capitol, I'm leaving with my head held high. We brought everything we could to the knowledge of the GA, and I think next year we'll have just as good of a shot as this year."