Noce revives monthly SLAC meetings
Noce led the revival to improve communication.
Published Feb. 12, 2010
For the first time in more than a year and a half, the Student Leader Advisory Council met Thursday evening at the first of what will become monthly meetings.
Missouri Students Association President Tim Noce said monthly SLAC meetings are a tradition that has been in place for more than 10 years. Noce said the revival of these meetings was one of his 10 presidential goals.
"It's in our old-school bylaws," Noce said. "It's a tradition that's set in stone. It's a tradition that I'm working on reviving."
Representatives from several organizations attended the meeting, including presidents of various college student councils, the Summer Welcome student directors and Alumni Association Student Board President Justin Yeater.
Normally, leaders from the various Greek Councils would be in attendance as well but were unable to attend due to a previous engagement.
Jazz Rucker, Interfraternity Council vice president of Membership Development, attended as the Greek Life representative and said the SLAC meetings would prove to be good opportunities for open discussion.
"As leaders, we're always approached with problems by our members, and this is a way to communicate our issues and collaborate on a larger level," Rucker said.
Noce said he wished more people could have attended.
"Getting 20 people in the same room at the same time is harder than you think," Noce said. "Hopefully at the next one there will be more student leaders in the room."
Summer Welcome Director A.J. Hohmann agreed a higher attendance would have been ideal.
"It went very positive, I wish more student leaders could have been here, but it's definitely a step in the right direction," Hohmann said.
Co-Summer Welcome Director Elizabeth Burrus agreed it was a good starting point.
"I think it went really well for the first one," Burrus said.
Despite the absence of the council for the past one and a half MSA administrations, Noce said he revived the group because he considered it his duty.
"Well, one, I consider it my duty, two, I represent all undergraduate students," Noce said. "I think it's my job not only to represent student leaders but the students they represent. When everyone comes to the table, we can really find out what we can all accomplish."
In addition to the monthly SLAC meetings, Noce also had the various leaders in attendance sign up to meet with him one-on-one. He said in the past, MSA presidents would only meet with certain student leaders on campus. Noce said he believed this was more in an effort to push their agendas.
"I don't necessarily think that's right," Noce said. "As MSA president, I'm supposed to represent you guys, and sometimes a one-on-one setting is more conducive to that."
One topic many leaders had input on was the Access Missouri issue being debated in Jefferson City. Residence Halls Association President Rachael Feuerborn said she was glad these meetings were happening because they would allow the leaders to find out when other organizations were working on the same things. In addition to RHA, both AASB and MSA were planning on lobbying about Access Missouri.
Noce plans to hold the meetings monthly and said he got specific ideas about what projects they will be focusing on from last night's meeting.
"I think that some of the issues I'm planning on working on are ones that other student leaders can empathize with," Noce said.