February 8, 2011

Apathy is not a new problem for MU’s student government organizations. In just the last few years, the Missouri Students Association has battled apathy among the student body toward the organization meant to represent students’ interests, and various outreach efforts from the group seem to have fallen on students’ deaf ears. But now MSA finds itself struggling with apathy within its own ranks — a low attendance rate, which is expected to only decline further as the semester continues onward.

It also appears that MSA hasn’t been doing too good of a job keeping the records of student senators’ votes or attendance, and apparently, had they been keeping records, they wouldn’t paint a very good picture of MSA.

Upon acquiring records, albeit incomplete records, we saw that not only is attendance low, but membership in general is on the decline. Senators tend to drop out of MSA as the semester progresses and schedules become busier. And, from speaking to senators and from our own experiences covering MSA’s meetings, it seems that student senators who are not a committee chairperson often develop a feeling of irrelevancy. The Operations Committee, which was charged with revising the election bylaws and the BEC handbook, had three members, including the chairman, in attendance at the time when major revisions were made.

Additionally, there seems to be a complete lackluster approach to MSA from the majority of the senators. Senate Speaker Evan Wood has repeatedly asked for semester goals from committee chairpersons, and, even now in February, is still asking.

The semester is already well under way, and if senators have yet to establish and report goals for the student constituencies they represent, then they’re clearly not being held accountable, which can’t be helping MSA in their quest for increase visibility on campus.

Students participate in MSA’s Senate for a reason, and hopefully it’s not just for a resum´e booster. Hopefully, it’s for the sake of protecting students’ interests. If members of MSA continuously spout mumbo jumbo about making MSA more visible and better representing their constituencies, then they should show up. They’re not setting a very good example for the vast number of students who they claim to speak for. If they can’t take themselves seriously, how can they expect the rest of us to do the same?

But, when the senators do show up, the story hasn’t gotten any better. The attendance problem is just as bad as the attention problem. Members of MSA who show up every Wednesday night to fill a seat might as well not even show up at all. Not to mention the fact all the senator spots in MSA Senate aren’t even being held to begin with, and that’s with a version with a reduced number of seats.

If MSA wants visibility, especially in the Senate, they should start by actually communicating with the students they represent. Be it through the specific college’s e-mail Listserv, or an entry in MU Info or even a flyer on a bulletin board. Anything is better than nothing at all.

Yes, MSA sponsors events and its Multicultural Issues Committee is planning outreach programs, but in the end, if the average student looks at the letters “MSA” and, as several speakers at the MSA inaugural dinner last week referenced, confuse the organization for the “Missouri Science Academy,” then they don’t mean shit.

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