Twenty four students have been newly elected as academic senators after the fall senatorial election, and share their experiences about running
Twenty four undergraduate students have been newly elected as academic senators for the Missouri Students Association following the 2024 Fall Senatorial Election that took place Nov. 5-7.
The seven academic colleges that will have new academic senators for the year are the College of Arts and Sciences, Trulaske College of Business, College of Education and Human Development, College of Engineering, Sinclair School of Nursing, College of Health Sciences and Missouri School of Journalism.
The newly elected academic senators for the year, across these academic colleges are listed below.
Every semester students can apply to fill empty senatorial seats for their academic college. Fifty seats within the senate are reserved for academic senators with the number of seats per academic college determined by the college’s annual enrollment. Academic senators are elected to the senate for one year.
Academic senators participate in full body senate meetings where legislation is discussed and voted on. They write and pass legislation in this process for the benefit of their academic college and the university at large.
Listening to the voices of University of Missouri students is a main priority for many academic senators as a big part of their position is listening to the concerns of MU students and amplifying those voices.
“My hopes are to really listen to the voice of students, because that’s something that I want to do as a teacher,” College of Education and Human Development academic senator-elect Devin Scharer said. “So I think this is really a start and an area to be able to advocate for my peers and my constituents.”
First-year Brayden Pirrung is a newly elected academic senator for the College of Arts and Sciences, who chose to run for the senate in order to uplift the students’ voices.
“The reason I really wanted to continue with MSA is because I definitely believe in having a voice, the students have a voice here…the administration does great things, but sometimes they need to listen to the students,” Pirrung said.
While academic senators serve all MU students, they are able to focus more on their respective academic college. Academic senators provide an opportunity for students to be represented by people of those respective colleges and who can advocate for their needs. They listen to the opinions and voices of the students and work to advocate for them.
While some of these newly elected senators have just begun their role, they have plans to elevate students’ voices throughout the year.
“I’ll meet more people inside the [College of] Arts and Science…just to understand everybody else inside of that college,[I’ll ask], ‘What are you going through? What could we help you with? What can MSA provide you?’” Pirrung said.
Sophomore Finnegan Stocks is a newly elected academic senator for the Trulaske College of Business. Stocks’ role as an academic senator allows him the opportunity to provide more support to the Trulaske College of Business student body in the coming year.
“I definitely want to get involved with the Trulaske Student Council, because I know they do a lot with the college and I want to be able to work with them and see what MSA can do to support them,” Stocks said.
These 24 academic senators will work until the end of the fall 2025 semester as advocates for MU students and find ways to try to improve their colleges and the MU community.
Edited by Eric Hughes | ehughes@themaneater.com
Copyedited by Jayden Bates-Bland and Emma Short | eshort@themaneater.com
Edited by Emily Skidmore | eskidmore@themaneater.com