Since we realize we’ve beaten discussion on the proposal for a voting student curator to a pulp, we’ll only briefly touch on it here. An amendment to House Bill 174, which created the voting student curator position, was voted down in the Missouri House of Representatives on Monday.
The discussion on this issue has been long and drawn out. Both sides got to present their points, and it finally came to a vote, which wasn’t in favor of UM System students.
However, in their final remarks on the issue, legislators on both sides of the debate gave it one final go. Rep. Donna Lichtenegger, R-Cape Girardeau, said that, while the students were articulate in their arguments, they didn’t have broad enough insight to have a voting position on the board, since student curators only serve two-year terms.
Rep. Stephen Webber, D-Columbia, stood up for students and our position on the voting student curator. He reminded Lichtenegger and other opponents to the amendment that Missouri representatives themselves serve only two-year long terms, and they craft and implement legislation at the state level.
Webber gave an impassioned fight for the amendment and stood up for the reputability and legitimacy of the student voice in the UM System. We would like to thank him, as well as Rep. Mary Still, D-Columbia, for proposing and sticking to this legislation all the way through, even if it failed.
Their fight was long and ultimately futile, but they remained consistent to the voice and intent of their constituents in Columbia. And for that, we thank them and other representatives who supported the idea of a voting student curator. Perhaps when new legislation is proposed, and the odds are it will be, the justified, rational idea that is a voting student curator will come to be.