Monday marked the start of voting for Missouri Students Association senators by academic college. As MSA is the representative body of undergraduate students at this university, it’s crucial that as many students as possible, with as many different backgrounds and interests and concerns as possible, vote for senators to ensure the best possible representation in Senate. **We urge you to vote** at [vote.missouri.edu,](vote.missouri.edu) and to talk to candidates about their positions and experience on issues involving students.
However, the reality of the situation is that few students will vote for senators as it is, and even fewer will make an effort to reach an informed decision. It’s the responsibility of the Board of Elections Commissioners as well as MSA’s Cabinet both to heighten the profile of Senate elections and to make it easier for students to find out the positions and concerns of senate candidates, and we feel they must step up in these efforts.
We first raised concerns about how MSA senators are elected [in a Feb. 22 editorial](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2013/2/22/msas-culture-not-conducive-real-progress/), which recommended MSA consider reforming its academic college election process to fill more seats with senators directly elected by students, and make its at-large elections (in which sitting senators elect new ones) focus more on candidates’ platforms rather than having a sitting senator vouch for them. We’re glad to report that MSA members seem to have listened — [legislation to completely abolish at-large elections](https://www.themaneater.com/stories/2013/3/1/legislation-submitted-response-maneaters-msa-edito/) was defeated last month, but Operations Committee Chairman Ben Bolin successfully pushed through legislation to require at-large candidates to submit platforms.
It’s a good first step, and we applaud the senators for working to increase transparency and improve representation in their organization. The next step in creating a better Senate should be providing more information to voters in academic-college senate elections.
Currently, students who log onto vote.missouri.edu will receive a list of candidates’ names for their academic college and instructions to choose up to a certain number of them. We don’t feel a list of names is enough to make an informed decision. Students might only choose the names of candidates they know or in some way other than based upon their qualifications and experience for being a student representative. That’s contrary to the purpose of a Senate that represents all students, and subtracts from the progress MSA has made in focusing its at-large elections away from “who you know” and toward “what you know.”
That’s why BEC and MSA leaders should work to provide students with more information on who they’re voting for in academic-college elections in the upcoming Senate elections in the fall. Attaching candidates’ statement of intent would provide voters with adequate information they need to make an informed choice. It doesn’t have to be long — even if each candidate were able to list their three top objectives they would pursue as an MSA senator, for example, voters would be able to choose candidates who would speak for them and share their concerns. It would take more effort, but it could yield a more robust and diverse Senate.
Otherwise, students don’t know who and what they’re voting for, unless they have done a _lot_ of research. Let’s be honest — that’s a rarity. Having information about candidates be accessible to voters is key, we believe, to improving MSA Senate. And ultimately, what improves MSA Senate certainly has the potential to improve our university too.
