MSA catches up from turnovers
Four chairpersons of the organization have resigned this semester.
Published Dec. 4, 2009
At the conclusion of the fall 2009 semester, four out of the six Missouri Students Association chairperson positions will have experienced a turnover.
Of those four vacant positions, three have been replaced with new chairpersons.
As a whole, Senate Speaker Amanda Shelton said she has been pleased with the ability of the new chairpersons to make up for the time spent filling the vacancies, but she will be discussing improvements with all committee chairpersons at next week's cabinet meeting.
"I have already noticed rapid productivity by our newly appointed chairs to make up for lost time," Shelton said. "Next week, Senate cabinet will be heavily discussing and identifying areas for improvement and areas of strength within the committees and Senate as a whole, and we will use that analysis to build our long-term vision and strategies for MSA as a whole."
The first new committee chairman to take office was Evan Wood. Wood left his position as vice chairman of the operations committee to take over for retiring operations Chairman Josh Travis in late October.
Senate Parliamentarian Doug Cowing has served on the operations committee under both Travis and Wood.
"I think he's doing a great job," Cowing said. "He's promised to make the committee meetings a lot shorter, because they usually run about two hours, and I don't think we've gone over an hour yet, so that's great. And he's done pretty much everything that you could absolutely ask from him. He's not Josh Travis, but he's doing a great job."
The second chairperson to step down was Chairwoman Erica Zucco of Academic Affairs. Ian Krause applied for and was selected by Shelton to fill the vacant position. Krause is a senior and four-year member of MSA.
Sen. Brett Dinkins also applied for Academic Affairs, and though he is satisfied with Shelton's decision to nominate Krause, he is concerned Krause's senior status might prove detrimental to long-term progress within the committee.
"One of the problems I had with the speaker's selection of Ian is that Ian graduates in May," Dinkins said. "He graduates this year."
Dinkin said he has an issue with the turnover when Krause graduates.
Shelton said she views Krause's senior standing as positive.
"Ian has been a chair of Academic Affairs for several weeks now, and I am thoroughly satisfied with his performance," Shelton said. "He is also working heavily on leadership development for the future with his committee and has had marked success in recruiting for Academic Affairs. He has been on the committee for four years, so the transition of this committee was minimal."
Michelle Horan was approved in her own committee in a narrow vote which first resulted in a tie. Only after the two other committee members who had also applied for the position decided to abstain from the vote did she pass through, approved unanimously by the operations committee.
Sean Nahlik, a former Maneater columnist and who applied for the position, said Horan's narrow approval in her own committee might indicate she wasn't the best choice.
"I do find it very interesting that when she went to be confirmed by her own committee, there were several committee members other than myself who dissented and even those who hadn't applied to be the chair of the committee," Nahlik said. "So the fact that their own committee initially had some dissent with her, could show that maybe she might not have been the best choice, but I'm still going to give her the benefit of the doubt and just see now that she is the chair how she will do."