Hansen, Oxenreider give details on MSA presidential platform
The slate's platform is based on four key points.
Published Oct. 1, 2010
A third slate for the 2010 Missouri Students Association presidential election was added Tuesday after MSA executive cabinet members Ben Hansen and Kaitlin Oxenreider officially declared their candidacy.
Hansen is the Department of Student Activities director and Oxenreider is the Department of Student Services director for MSA.
According to Hansen, the duo’s combined executive experience within MSA is an asset that could help make their campaign successful.
“I’ve already been in the executive branch and council for almost a year and half now,” Hansen said. “That’s given me the experience to know what the executive branch is all about and how it’s meant to be the most effective type of leadership in MSA.”
Campaign manager Stacey Sobelman said Hansen and Oxenreider have a good idea as to what MU students want to see out of a presidential campaign, as well as an expansive knowledge of the inner workings of student government.
“They have a very strong grasp on what the average student at Mizzou cares about,” Sobelman said. “They have all the qualifications to make them good leaders, but they also have the things that would make them good friends.”
Hansen and Oxenreider will run their campaign based around the four platform points of community, scholarship, efficiency and conservation.
“All four points are very strong and definitely things that need improvement at Mizzou,” Sobelman said.
Boosting student involvement in Homecoming, expanding MU philanthropy efforts, getting students interested in The Jungle, improving campus accessibility for non-traditional students and making MSA a more transparent organization are all ways Hansen and Oxenreider plan to better the MU community, Oxenreider said.
“We’re here to improve student involvement by emphasizing the intrinsic value of being a student leader,” Oxenreider said.
Oxenreider said the campaign plans to improve students' academic experience through finding a balance between the expertise of MU faculty and students’ learning styles, as well as improving communication in course evaluations, recommendations and technology.
“We really need to work on assessment and communication between students and professors so we can have more of a say in what’s going on in the classroom,” Hansen said. “We know best how we can learn.”
Hansen and Oxenreider also plan to evaluate the spending of student fees and MSA’s $1.3 million budget to make sure student money is being spent appropriately.
“We’re committed to improving the overall efficiency of the University of Missouri in order to make things more affordable for students,” Oxenreider said.
According to Oxenreider, she and Hansen will be running a “green campaign,” printing everything they give to students on recycled paper, as well as looking into the amount of energy used around campus.
“We want to conserve our resources and give back to the environment,” Oxenreider said.
In addition to Hansen and Oxenreider’s four platform points, the two candidates want to make sure students are aware of what MSA is and what it does.
“A lot of students don’t know that they’re paying money to fund MSA, that they can get involved and have a say in how the money is spent,” Hansen said. “I want to bring this bureaucratic system that is above a lot of people’s heads back down to the base level.”
Hansen also said he is excited about the involvement of other campaigns and the level of competition going into the elections.
“I’m happy that we have a lot of candidates this year,” Hansen said. “I’m looking forward to the election, because we’ll have some competition and that will motivate all the candidates to do their best.”