Members of the Missouri Students Association unanimously voted on Feb. 21 to move a majority of the Department of Student Activities outside of MSA jurisdiction.
DSA resides in the executive branch of MSA. According to its website, DSA is responsible for “creating, managing and marketing exciting activities” for MU students. DSA includes committees on black and international programming, college music, films and speakers.
During the full senate session of MSA on Feb. 21, 21 members of MSA voted unanimously to pass Resolution 57-38, “A Resolution to Support the Move of DSA.” The document states that “DSA’s move will allow for MSA to free itself from its repetitive budget allocations” and “DSA can better operate under the new student programming board.” The resolution was authored by Budget Committee Chair Jake Eovaldi and Tyler Parton, director of student activities in DSA.
DSA will not dissolve. Instead, a conglomeration of event planning boards is currently in the works. Mizzou After Dark, Student Unions Programming Board, Tiger’s Lair and Zou Crew will all be brought together as one event-planning organization. The logistics, including structure and funding, for the new board are being configured.
A section of DSA will remain part of MSA but will mostly be used to plan events for MSA inaugurations.
Funding for DSA events must go through MSA Senate for approval. Parton said it will be beneficial for an independent programming group to make budget decisions for events rather than MSA, as MSA is more focused on academics and student government.
For the 2015-16 school year, DSA received $424,341 of MSA’s approximate budget of $1.4 million. Funding for the new programming board will be decided through MSA’s allocation of student tuition fees, which is still being discussed.
DSA is the largest department within MSA. Parton said separating MSA and DSA will allow for both groups to work toward their main goals.
“[DSA] doesn’t really correlate with the missions and goals that [MSA is] doing every year,” Parton said. “I think having the two separate is going to be able to have them focus on more student government things and have us focus on more event planning things.”
Parton said MSA has considered removing DSA from its list of departments in the past, but the current leadership of MSA will allow for a smooth transition.
“The idea has been bouncing around for a while,” Parton said. “With the other changes in MSA, it seems like the best time to make the move.”
MSA is also currently working on legislation to remove five auxiliaries from its budget: Student Legal Services, MSA/GPC Box Office, MSA/GPC Tech, KCOU and MUTV. The hope is that other organizations within MU will pick up the funding for these programs. The final vote in MSA Senate is scheduled for April 11.
_Edited by Skyler Rossi | srossi@themaneater.com_
