With only a month left in the current administration, Missouri Students Association is working on finalizing plans to make the shift to the new administration as smooth as possible.
While there is a large focus on election campaigns right now, MSA continues to work on other initiatives like a program for students with intellectual disabilities, placing NARCAN in Residential Life halls and a secret announcement that will be taking place soon.
“We’re kind of just in a transition period right now … our biggest thing is election marketing,” Senate Speaker Jacob Addington said. “The presidential election is going on right now so we’re just trying to make sure there’s a large turn-out for that.”
Alongside the election work, there are many other efforts in progress. One initiative MSA has been doing for a while is platforming for a potential new program for students with intellectual or developmental disabilities.
“Currently most people with intellectual or developmental disabilities are inhibited from going to college because of the traditional nature of college acceptance standards,” Matt McCabe, director of communications for the executive branch, said.
MSA is working to create an alternative program so people with these disabilities are able to attend college. McCabe discussed that they have been working closely with the University of Central Missouri and Missouri State University who already have programs in place and are wanting to imitate that at MU.
They have also had conversations with the Office of Accessibility and ADA coordinator and the Mizzou Disability Coalition over this topic to see what something like this would look like.
“No concrete progress has been made on this subject, but it’s just something that we want to continue to elevate the conversation on,” McCabe said.
According to McCabe, MSA also plans on introducing NARCAN in all residence halls on campus in order to prevent overdoses. The new administration will be in charge of organizing and training for the NARCAN program.
An anonymous student survey where students will be able to provide their thoughts on campus issues and areas they want improved will be sent out soon. According to McCabe, it is a way to hear and visualize what students want from their leadership.
“The idea there is to not only help our administration and what limited time we have left in our term, but also to be able to assist the next administration that comes on and give them a fresh set of data on what Mizzou students care about,” McCabe said.
He said by doing this, it will allow the next administration to step in right away and hit the ground running.
_Edited by Ben Scott | bscott@themaneater.com_