Missouri Students Association President Xavier Billingsley and Vice President Helena Kooi will attend the Big 12 on the Hill Conference despite MU’s move to the SEC.

The annual conference will be held in Washington, D.C. March 24 to 27 and Billingsley and Kooi will lobby congressmen and women for student interests.

The MSA executive branch requested $1,000 from the Contingency and Reserve account to be able to attend the conference.

“We always have a travel bylaw in the budget, which is usually allocated to certain expenses,” Billingsley said. “But this year we had an unexpected expense when we went to the SEC conference.”

The request will be voted on by the MSA Senate at its meeting Wednesday.
The MSA budget for the 2011-12 academic year was approved in April 2011 and MU did not announce its move to the SEC until November 2012. Currently, the balance of the C&R account sits at $87,216.

To cut costs, MSA will only send Billingsley and Kooi to lobby in Washington.

“Xavier and I wanted it to be just the two of us so it is more cost effective,” Kooi said.

The conference brings together student leaders from all of the Big 12 schools to lobby for student interests. This year, Billingsley and Kooi will be focusing on funding cuts.

“Right now it’s really important because you have so many budget cuts from everywhere,” Billingsley said. “We have to make sure that we advocate for our student body to make sure that our student voice is heard.”

Kooi said she is looking forward to working with other student leaders and it was important to attend Big 12 on the Hill even though MU is leaving the conference.

“I think this is going to be a really, really good opportunity as a student government and even as a school that’s changing into a new conference,” she said.

Kooi said she wanted the other Big 12 student leaders to know MU was not going to let them down.

“We didn’t want it to seem like we were quitting early,” she said.

Billingsley said Big 12 on the Hill is an opportunity for students to have their voices heard in Washington.

“The reason why I am very, very concerned about going this year is just so many budget cuts and so many issues in higher education,” he said. “If students don’t talk and if students aren’t heard, we lower our chances of making sure our budget is flat or not decreased.”

Kooi said both she and Billingsley would prepare for lobbying before attending the conference and would contact Missouri representatives and senators, as well.

“(Big 12 on the Hill) is still like five, six weeks away so we’ll be starting to contact them in advance,” she said. “We also plan on contacting Mizzou’s Office of Governmental Affairs before we leave.”