On Feb. 19, the Missouri Students Association elected sophomore Maggie Funston as the 2024-2025 speaker of the Senate.

The speaker of the Senate serves as the head of MSA’s Legislative Branch. Funston will take office as the speaker of the Senate for the 64th Legislative Session on April 3. 

Funston is from Festus, Missouri, and is studying political science. She currently serves as one of the co-directors for MSA’s First Year Council.

In her speech to the rest of the Senate, Funston outlined her three goals: transparency, advocacy and reform. 

First, her speech focused on her goal of creating more transparency between the Senate and leadership as well as between the Senate and the student body. She said it is important to advocate for students and give them the “full scope” of what is happening in MSA.

“At the end of the day, we’re accountable to the students who elected us into these positions,” Funston said.

For advocacy, Funston said she wants to ensure the Senate focuses on the needs of the student body. To do so, she plans to form subcommittees and task forces to focus on the issues students face, such as student safety and sustainability. Funston said one example of this is creating a sustainability committee or a sustainability coordinator within the Senate. 

“It’s not about what our priorities are,” Funston said. “It’s about what the priorities of the student body are.”

Finally, Funston wants to reform some aspects of the Senate, such as ensuring that senators have enough knowledge to be motivated to write legislation. Her goal is for all senators to have the platform to work on pieces of legislation to make the legislation more representative of the student body.

“All senators in the room should be encouraged and given the platform to work on pieces of legislation that directly impact their constituents,” Funston said, pointing to the senators. “Without that we’re not the representative body that we claim to be.”

At the end of her speech, Funston said it is important to elevate the voices of marginalized communities on campus and give senators the opportunity to fulfill their duties. 

Three senators were nominated to be the speaker of the Senate. Funston received 24 votes, Logan Kuykendall, the current legislative clerk, received 10 votes and Ben Baumgart, the current campus affairs chair, received two votes. 

Funston will be inaugurated on April 3 from 6 to 7:30 p.m. at Traditions Plaza. 

Edited by Sophia Anderson | sanderson@themaneater.com

Copy Edited by Briana Iordan | biordan@themaneater.com

Edited by Sophie Rentschler | srentschler@themaneater.com