“Show Me Mizzou,” one of the two slates running for Missouri Students Association president and vice president positions this month, sat down to discuss their plans to make MU an environment where students feel safe on and off campus through increasing blue lights on campus and deepening existing relationships with MUPD and the Columbia Police Department.
Increases in off-campus violence have made many students feel unsafe on campus. How will your administration make students feel safe both on and off campus?
MM: I went and met with [MUPD Police Chief Brian Weimer] … and we had a pretty productive meeting. And I just said, ‘This is something that is really serious and a lot of students are unhappy about … can we work towards finding a solution that is good for [MUPD] and [its] policies and procedures, … but also make the students on the campus feel safe and make them feel better about their social life?’ So that’s a big thing … having that relationship and being able to work with [Weimer] and he’s been very open to us eventually connecting with the Columbia Police Department. These are … issues that we can start dialogues about and [figure] out how we can make the student experience better.”
Many students feel that in incidents of violence, MU fails to properly alert them, especially if the violence occurs off campus in heavily student-populated areas (downtown, bars, etc.). How will you work with MUPD and MU administration to ensure that students feel properly informed when it comes to their safety off campus?
MM: “That issue [of MU alerts is] … very nuanced. That was something I found out when I started asking these questions. And then my follow-up thought to that was, ‘Why are we not explaining this to students?’ There’s nothing about this that is classified or off the record or anything like that. And [MUPD is] more than happy to explain this and answer people’s questions.
There’s a couple … facets to it. One is delayed communication from CPD . So they’re the ones that actually give the university and the university police the information to send out to the students, which is usually quite delayed.
So the second part of that probably needs to happen with MU Alerts, and something that we’re looking at as part of our policy platform points is how can we make a safety app where information can be more readily available directly from the university and from MUPD.”
What measures does your slate plan to put in place to effectively protect the most vulnerable student populations at MU from sexual harassment and hate crimes in particular?
JM: “When it comes to hate crimes, … especially being a minority myself, that’s really disheartening just to know that it still occurs to this day, and on campus.
We don’t have a direct policy at this point … specific to that area. But I can say with 100% confidence and certainty that we’re here to support those student groups. And obviously they’ll have better insight on those issues and how they occur and how to prevent them. And so listening and collaborating with them will give us a far better perspective than we could ever present with our platform currently.”
MM: “There’s a blue light [emergency tower] … in the back of Mark Twain in the parking lot. And I always walked by it and thought, ‘This is so weird. This is the only blue light that I know where it is’ … and so we think that by increasing the quantity of blue lights, it would at least make that system as effective as it should be.”
Looking at safety in terms of student health, describe the impact your slate would want to have on MU’s COVID-19 policies if elected.
JM: “We will represent students in every way possible, but we don’t want to make any outlandish statements, like we’re going to … reinstate mask mandates indoors for all students regardless of vaccination status, because ultimately, that’s … out of our hands.”
MM: “And we also think that having those resources available for students that want them or need them, in terms of testing and vaccination and things like that, should be widely available on campus. We hope to continue to support the university’s efforts to have [vaccination and testing] events.”
Analysis:
This is something that Mendoza and Miller do a lot: They are looking back at their prior experiences and relationships to create change as potential MSA president and vice president. The fact that Mendoza and Miller are primarily looking to build on those relationships makes plans like these much more tangible.
Building on MU’s relationship with the Columbia Police Department may be a far-away goal had Miller not highlighted her relationship with MUPD. However, Miller’s working relationship with key figures in the Columbia community will make it easier for the campaign to achieve their goals if elected.
Miller and Mendoza’s dedication to deepening relationships with Columbia officials demonstrate that they believe student safety needs to come from both MU officials and the City of Columbia.
Moreover, loftier goals, such as streamlining MU Alerts or increasing the number of functioning blue lights on campus , are much more achievable given these pre-existing connections.
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Edited by Emmet Jamieson | ejamieson@themaneater.com