MSA holds hearing about student fee handling
Miscommunications regarding meetings and deadlines have raised concerns.
Published April 30, 2010
The Missouri Students Association Operations Committee held a hearing of the Student Fee Review Committee on Tuesday night.
Operations Committee Chairman Justin Mohn said the hearing was scheduled after concerns were expressed regarding SFRC's handling of student fee recommendations.
"Since the first week when we saw the SFRC legislation, I can remember sitting in committee and thinking, 'I don't know what the hell all of this is,' " Mohn said. "The legislation wasn't exactly confusing, but there was no way for us to understand what the inflationary increases were for. So I guess at the time it was unnerving, definitely not the ideal situation."
According to MSA bylaws, the chairperson of the SFRC committee is supposed to send representatives to the various MSA committees.
"We found out that it was required for folks from SFRC come talk to us about the legislation," Mohn said. "They were putting forward this legislation and making these recommendations, but they hadn't come to talk to us about why."
During the hearing, SFRC Chairman Kristofferson Culmer said no one had informed him about this responsibility when he took on the position.
"More or less I think there were just issues with the communication like Kristofferson said no one ever put the bylaws in front of him," SFRC committee member Jake Sloan said. "It was just a lapse in communication."
Another concern raised was that the next SFRC chairperson has yet to be selected. The deadline in the bylaws is March 31, but Culmer said no one had informed him of this, and he had not taken on his position by the set deadline the year prior.
Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Cathy Scroggs said the date by which Culmer was selected last year was the earliest a chairperson had ever been chosen. She suggested MSA and the Graduate Professional Council amend their Articles of Cooperation regarding the deadline because it had never been met in the past.
"I had heard there was a deadline, but I figured it would be run more or less like the Senate elections, where someone knew when the decision would be made," Sloan said. "I didn't know about that date during spring break, and I don't think anyone else really knew. As Dr. Scroggs had said, Kristofferson was the earliest chair elected and that was this time last year."
Senate Speaker Evan Wood said the meeting was a step in the right direction toward improving inter-committee communication.
"I think the thing everyone walked out of the room with was that we need to communicate more to avoid these feuds and circumstances that lead to things like the hearing on Tuesday," Wood said. "I don't think it necessarily accomplished the kind of understanding that was necessarily desired by both parties, but I think it was a step in the right direction."
Sloan said the hearing went better than he had expected.
"I came into it thinking it was going to be more of an investigation, but they had points of information that we hadn't even considered, which will ultimately make the process more efficient," he said. "There were real issues discussed, it wasn't a witch hunt as I and others had feared."
Sloan and Mohn are working on legislation, which will be presented to Senate early in the next term. Sloan said the legislation would change the bylaws to treat SFRC legislation as an act, which requires a first and second reading.
"This way, people aren't overwhelmed," Sloan said. "They don't have to look at 20 pieces of legislation, they only have maybe two to look over. This way there's time between so they can look it over and see if they have questions or concerns."