The editorial a few weeks ago focused on how the Missouri Students Association failed to follow its own bylaws. Well, oops they did it again, but with your money (student fees) this time.

MSA bylaws dictate any recommendation for an increase in student fees by the Student Fee Review Committee must be brought to MSA Senate in the form of a resolution for consideration before being sent to the UM System Board of Curators for approval. SFRC did suggest a 2.9 percent increase (much higher than last year’s 0.78 percent), but skipped MSA Senate and went directly to the UM System Board of Curators, who approved it.

This means an increase in student fees, which students pay for, was approved without having any student input at all.

The Senate is the only student check on the increase and by bypassing that crucial step, the process became a very undemocratic one. In case MSA forgot, the theory of checks and balances is a core component of a democratic government. Students vote for senators to represent them, and when the Senate reviews the proposed student fee increase, it ensures the students of this campus have some say and no one entity has all the power.

So then why did no individual from MSA, especially Budget Committee Chairman Clark Maynard, who has direct responsibility for bringing the fee suggestion to Senate, bring up the matter before it closed? It seems as if Maynard wasn’t even aware of his own duties, which is a whole other pocketful of mess if an MSA official doesn’t even know what his job entails. This might have been simple oversight missed by college students (they are students, after all), but then MSA adviser Farouk Aregebe should have stepped in as well. Perhaps MSA thought it could get away with this slip-up since they’re trying to change how the SFRC committee is set up and functions next year.

In the past, when the budget committee chairperson brought SFRC’s suggestions to the Senate, every detail of the increase was examined and thus made transparent to the Senate and its constituents. Now, though our related article contains information on what the student fee increase generally entails, our knowledge of the total increase is much murkier.

This isn’t just some bureaucratic misstep. In the past, meetings in which the Senate has reviewed suggested fee increases have been very long and thorough, reflecting the importance of the matter. Handling student fees to better serve students is one of MSA’s most important duties, perhaps even its premier function.

There’s extreme irony in the fact the considered changes for the SFRC committee are intended to make handling student fees more democratic by allowing members of the general student population to join, and yet MSA’s failure to bring the student fee increase to the Senate ensured the exact opposite.

With the manner in which MSA mishandled this issue (by completely overlooking it), there’s nothing stopping it from happening again. What’s even the point of having students vote for senators if the Senate doesn’t even get to make decisions on important issues? Is the Senate really that effective if it fails one of its key functions but manages to debate a state cigarette tax increase when it has no say in the matter?

It’s necessary to say “Don’t let it happen next time,” but this requires further action, given that it’s no guarantee MSA will do what it says it will do and change the SFRC. After all, it didn’t review student fee increases like it said it would in its bylaws. Therefore, the bylaws should be rewritten to ensure the SFRC has absolutely no ability to move its suggestion for student fee increases any further without taking it to Senate first, and the responsibility should be extended to other officials besides the budget committee chairperson.

More importantly, students need to stay in contact with their senators, especially considering the ones they vote for usually leave and are replaced without being voted in, and make sure the Senate will not ignore such vital necessities as reviewing student fees. Because as of right now, for MSA, rules aren’t rules, they’re more like guidelines.