The Missouri Students Association is creating a committee to address the underrepresentation of academic colleges in Senate.
This fall’s MSA Senate academic college has 20 seats open. Fifty total seats are elected by academic college and are allotted based on enrollment data of each college from the previous school year.
Academic college elections allow students to elect senators to represent their specific college. Members of Senate also elect 20 additional at-large senators in elections that take place at the discretion of the speaker. Academic college elections take place once a semester, on the first Tuesday of November and March.
The Sinclair School of Nursing, College of Education and College of Agriculture, Food and Natural Resources currently have no senators. Arts and Science, Business and Engineering academic colleges currently have the most representation.
“Most cases, I would get emails from students who were looking to vote and no one would be on the ballot for their school because nobody was running,” Legislative Chief of Staff Bridget Everson said. “Then, they would be like, ‘This is really messed up.’ And it’s true because nobody is representing their voices. It’s easy for MSA to become very homogenous.”
To combat underrepresentation, Everson is creating a committee for recruitment and retainment. This committee will be made up of people from all branches of MSA, such as the Department of Student Activities, DSC and Executive Cabinet, and it will meet biweekly.
“I think what I’m looking for is more long-term, almost culture changes, we can make in MSA that are going to improve our reputation on campus,” Everson said.
Current senators will table at Speakers Circle with applications to run for senator during Food Truck Fridays in the coming weeks. MSA has also been in communication with academic college student councils to increase interest and recruitment.
“Having that connection between MSA and these individual college student councils who already have representatives seating there is going to help that collusion that connects colleges to the student government,” Senate Speaker Mark McDaniel said.
Everson has not set a date for the first meeting of the committee.
_Edited by Emily Gallion | egallion@themaneater.com_
