For Missouri Students Association members, there’s a fine line between endorsing an MSA presidential slate as an MU student and endorsing as an elected official.
According to bylaws enacted by MSA’s Board of Elections Commissioners last year, the Speaker of the MSA Senate, Chairman of the Senate Operations Committee and the President of MSA cannot publicly endorse candidates.
MSA’s Outreach committee was created after the bylaws were updated, so it was never under consideration for inclusion.
BEC Chairman Thomas Bourneuf said the BEC is waiting to see how Outreach develops before passing additional restrictions on the committee. Had the committee existed when the bylaws were written, Bourneuf said it might have been included in the bylaw.
“This is speculation because we’re still not 100 percent sure where (Outreach) is going,” he said. “But I can see that as a possibility, yes.”
Two members of the Outreach committee are working for slates, while three members are running for president or vice president.
Outreach Chairman and MSA Chief of Staff Nick Droege is working as Everett Bruer’s campaign strategist, while Outreach member and Maneater staff member Steven Dickherber is serving as Xavier Billingsley’s campaign manager.
In a previous Maneater article, Woods described the Outreach committee as a group of students dedicated to talking with student organizations on campus. This puts Droege, Dickherber and other members of Outreach in direct contact with students.
“I have been pretty forward with all of them that if they want to help us reach out to student organizations as a student government, that’s great,” MSA President Eric Woods said. “But the second that they start even thinking about using it for campaign purposes, I will remove them.”
Woods said differentiating between supporting a candidate as a friend and as an official is crucial.
“They can work for a slate or for their friend, but they can’t do it from their position,” he said.
Greg Loeffler, director of Student Services, Outreach member and presidential candidate, said he agrees with the bylaw’s message.
“I think that allowing the students to choose and make their own decisions (without influence from those already involved) does allow for more legitimacy in the association,” he said.
Loeffler declined to comment on Droege’s involvement with the campaign.
Dickherber said he separates his titles as much as possible.
“I never connect the two,” he said. “If I’m doing something for Outreach committee, I’m doing something for Outreach committee. If I’m going to an organization for my campaign, then that’s what I’m doing.”
Droege said he also makes a distinction between the two.
“I really have no bias when it comes to my job,” he said. “I help manage their campaign as a friend, not as the Outreach chair.”
Droege said all information he receives from Outreach meetings is available to all of the presidential slates.
Woods said there is always the risk that students will assume a member of MSA’s political affiliation is related to his or her official position.
“If people want to read into it that way, that’s (their prerogative),” he said. “All that really matters to me is that our positions remain neutral.”
Dickherber said he is not trying to hide his affiliations.
“It’s not that we expect people to not notice the connection, people are free to see everything I’m involved in,” Dickherber said. “I do several things around campus. The point that’s important to make is whenever I’m doing anything for Outreach committee, I never use that position as leverage for my campaign.”
If the two positions were mixed, Dickherber said it would be a major infraction for the offending slate.
“For the election, it would be a major infraction to use any part of MSA as leverage for the campaign, (it) would be detrimental to the campaign,” he said. “We wouldn’t be allowed to campaign for a week, and if we got a second, we would be kicked off the ballot entirely.”