Fessehaye and Abell join race for MSA presidency

Joe Fessehaye and Lindsey Abell have become the second slate running in MSA's upcoming presidential election.

By Megan Stroup

Published Sept. 26, 2008

This week, Joe Fessehaye and Lindsey Abell became the second slate to join the race for MSA's upcoming presidential election.

Fessehaye, a senior from Columbia majoring in interdisciplinary studies, says he chose to run for the Missouri Students Association presidency because he wants to "better the student body's experience through everyday life at Mizzou."

Fessehaye has previous experience working in MSA. He served as a senator for roughly a year and a half, ending at the conclusion of the 2007 spring semester. Fessehaye was working two jobs at the time while holding the position of KCOU/88.1 FM program director.

Fessehaye said he chose to take a break from being a senator because of the many levels of bureaucracy at MSA and to focus on his work at KCOU, where he believes changes were more quickly implemented and recognized.

Aside from his work with MSA, Fessehaye has also held the presidency of Mizzou Film, and is now the KCOU assistant general manager. Fessehaye claims his previous leadership roles and job experiences have helped him develop great communication skills and the abilities to lead and delegate. He also said he is open-minded and believes that will help him in the role of MSA president.

Fessehaye said he is different from other candidates because he doesn't make false promises.

"It's hard to be in politics without looking like a politician," he said. "Nevertheless, Lindsey and I plan to work hard for the student body."

Abell is a sophomore education major from St. Louis. Abell and Fessehaye met while working together at the Adventure Club, a mentoring program for Columbia Public Schools. Abell said Fessehaye approached her at an Adventure Club meeting about campaigning for MSA.

Abell said she was already interested in MSA from being a student in the Chancellor's Leadership Class last year. During the course, Abell had the opportunity to meet with Chancellor Brady Deaton and discuss different issues on campus. She also knew a few people in the MSA government and thought it sounded like something she would enjoy, she said.

Besides her leadership class, Abell served on her Mark Twain residence hall floor government last year, helping plan activities for her community. Abell said her past leadership roles have taught her how to "know when to step it up and be on top of everything, and when to step back and let other people have their voices heard."

She said she feels this would be a beneficial quality to bring to the vice presidency.

Abell said she believes she will work well with Fessehaye.

"We both have similar visions of what we'd like to see happen at Mizzou," she said. "We both balance each other out and when we bounce ideas off of each other it works really well."

Fessehaye and Abell are still working to obtain the 500 required signatures to be placed on the ballot. The signatures are due Oct. 13.