The Missouri Students Association is currently led by senior President Landon Brickey and senior Vice President Emily Smith. Now, their term is coming to a close. MSA will hold the election for a new president and vice president from March 7 to 9, and the new president and vice president will take office April 5. 

Brickey and Smith said their time at MSA reflects their hard work, dedication and passion to making MU a better place. The pair had new projects implemented all over campus that students can see daily. 

“We both had very unique stories of how we came to Mizzou and how we fell in love with it,” Brickey said. “We both had this same commitment to Mizzou and the same idea of leaving it better than we found it, so that was kind of the main idea of one of our programs and platform points. We wanted to make sure that Mizzou was a better place for the students.” 

Brickey and Smith said that even from the start of their leadership, they did not shy away from making changes to MU. 

During their time as president and vice president, MSA held the first Mental Health Week for students, provided menstrual items to bathrooms around campus, sponsored organizations such as Truman’s Closet, Tiger Pantry and STRIPES, and further implemented the Emily Kirk Memorial Scholarship. 

“We work on behalf of all 25,000 undergraduates by advocating to administration, speaking with administration, sharing our concerns, working on different projects and policies to make sure students are safe and healthy,” Brickey said. “We tried hard to work with different groups on campus this year. Student government always says ‘the voice of the student body,’ and we really tried to shift it to be the megaphone of the student body.” 

Brickey and Smith also provided funding for Homecoming for underrepresented students such as QTPOC, an organization that represents queer trans people of color at MU; Feeding for Finals, which provides free meals for students to combat hunger insecurity during finals week; and provided a $20,000 funding for Narcan, which is used to treat a narcotic overdose in emergency situations. Currently, MSA is partnering with the Associated Students of the University of Missouri, a student advocate in state politics, to provide voter registration kiosks and implement a school-wide clothing drive. 

Along with this, Smith worked heavily on projects surrounding sexual assault on campus, creating a standing task force that meets with organizations such as Relationship and Sexual Violence Prevention, Legion of Black Collegians, Mizzou Without Sexual Assault and the Dr. Bill Stackman, the Vice-Chancellor of Student Affairs, to discuss change at MU. 

“Another thing I’m extremely proud of is that we created a sexual-assault task force,” Smith said. “It was something I was always planning on doing in this position because it is something I’m very passionate about on campus. It’s an awesome group, and everyone is so well-spoken and smart and has so much passion about this project.” 

As Brickey and Smith reflect on their time of leadership for MSA, both said they simply wish that they had more time in the position.

“There are so many things I wish we could’ve done,” Brickey said. “A year is not enough time for this position, unfortunately. Obviously, we’re extremely proud of what we’ve done, but there are so many things we wish we could’ve completed. Sustainability really took a backseat during the pandemic. Overall, definitely just wish we could’ve done more.” 

Brickey and Smith’s passion to make a change at MU during their time leading MSA can be recognized throughout campus, with events such as Mental Health Week gathering thousands of students to prioritize their mental health and menstrual products being available all around campus facilities. Both president and vice president continue to appreciate their time in leadership at MSA. 

“The overarching theme is helping students on campus,” Smith said. “It’s been very educational for me as a student to kind of see everything we get to do and all the different points on campus that we get to reach.” 
Edited by Emmet Jamieson | ejamieson@themaneater.com