On Monday evening, Mizzou Student Media hosted the 2026 Missouri Students Association Presidential Debate between juniors Noah Schnarre and Jase DeCota of the Caring For Our Claws slate and junior Brayden Pirrung and sophomore Elise Lewis of the Pirrung-Lewis ‘26 slate in Jesse Wrench Auditorium. In the hour-long debate, candidates were asked general, slate-specific and audience questions.
Expanded dining options
Both platforms want to establish 24-hour dining options for students. One of Pirrung-Lewis’ proposed solutions is to keep the Mizzou Market at Southwest open 24/7. They also referred to contactless food options, such as Amazon’s Just Walk Out markets, which would allow more dining options without requiring the university to hire more workers.
“This is a fresh idea,” Lewis said. “It’s innovative, and Mizzou’s already using something kind of like that at the Student Center with their grab-and-go scanning options currently.”
Caring For Our Claws mentioned expanding dining options downtown by having restaurants like Shakespeare’s Pizza accept dining dollars from Mizzou students. They also discussed placing vending machines across campus that accept dining dollars.
“The vending machines are much cheaper and they’re much more convenient because you can just put them wherever you want,” DeCota said. “You can put them in all the neighborhoods. You can put them at the Student Center, you can put them literally wherever, and it would help so much more than a couple locations that are manned.”
Switch from Revive the Roar to Pirrung-Lewis ‘26
A large focus was placed on Pirrung-Lewis ‘26’s original slate name, “Revive the Roar,” which was used by a slate in the 2024 MSA presidential election. After facing public backlash, the slate rescinded its original name choice, changing to Pirrung-Lewis ‘26. In a statement posted to Instagram on Feb. 28, Pirrung and Lewis stated they were unaware that the name had been used before.
Following the Instagram post, an anonymous complaint was made to the MSA Board of Elections Commissioners, prompting an investigation. On March 10, the BEC ruled that Pirrung and Lewis were dishonest about their knowledge of the 2024 slate and their usage of “Revive the Roar.”
The BEC required the slate to either post a clarifying statement admitting their previous statement was dishonest or be placed on a three-day campaign suspension. The slate chose the suspension and was ordered to suspend campaigning from March 11 to 14.
“Elise and I did not mean to diminish, plagiarize or take away from the slate that used (the name) before,” Pirrung said. “While we wish we could turn back the clock, we know that’s not how life works, but we have learned something from this moment. It’s that when students tell us that something missed the mark, it’s our job — it’s our responsibility as student leaders— to listen and adjust.”
However, Caring For Our Claws says Pirrung-Lewis’ response to the situation failed to resonate with students.
“(They) mention, obviously, feeling apologetic, and I understand the feeling there, but in (their) original statement, I fail to see any apology, and many students within (their) comment section and around campus have also brought those concerns to me personally,” Schnarre said.
During the audience question portion of the debate, Pirrung and Lewis were asked directly how they would work to rebuild trust with Black students in particular, given that the original “Revive the Roar” slate was composed of two Black women. Pirrung said he hopes to repair their relationship with organizations such as the Legion of Black Collegians by facilitating more meetings with their leaders and MSA executives.
“If we are elected this Friday, the inauguration is April 1,” Pirrung said. “April 2, I want to send emails to all of those leaders talking about how we want to bring them to the table. We want to have conversations. We want to mend that relationship. We are here for all students, fighting for all students.”
Student safety
During the debate, Caring For Our Claws discussed safe student transportation, while Pirrung-Lewis emphasized on-campus safety.
The Caring For Our Claws slate focused on safe, nightly transportation for students, especially within the STRIPES program. STRIPES is a monthly Uber credit that Mizzou students have access to after paying the student activity fee.
“I want to look into making sure that STRIPES is very much visible to the student body, as usage severely dropped in the past semester,” Schnarre said. “And also, looking at other forms of nightly public transport to make sure students get home safe.”
Pirrung-Lewis emphasized utilizing the Mizzou Safe app to communicate when emergency alert systems are being serviced on campus. They also discussed MSA’s current Safe Mizzou Coalition, a newly reactivated program that increases awareness of safety resources available to students, faculty and staff.
“We believe this is a successful program that (the current administration is) running to support not only MSA’s view of safety, but also collaborating with student organizations and university administration on campus,” Lewis said.
Zou Pass accessibility
Student seating for home football games at Memorial Stadium was limited this school year due to construction. Despite the decreased student seating, roughly the same number of Zou Passes were sold. To adjust for limited seating, the Zou Pass changed from a guaranteed ticket to a claim system with an online queue. In September, Mizzou Athletics changed the pass system again to a lottery system. Both systems faced student backlash.
The Pirrung-Lewis slate highlighted the importance of communicating with Mizzou Athletics to compromise on the future Zou Pass system.
“We want to make sure that our relationship is there,” Pirrung said. “If our relationship isn’t there, MSA does not have a strong voice that they can use.”
In a rebuttal, DeCota criticized Pirrung-Lewis’s plan.
“(Pirrung and Lewis) talk a lot about compromising with them, but I think what the students need is transparency on what’s actually happening,” DeCota said. “You can make a compromise, and they probably did last time when they made the new athletic ticket system, but no one knows what’s going on.”
Schnarre and DeCota’s ideal Zou Pass system is the original one, where students paid $150 and received tickets to every Mizzou game. However, in a post-debate interview, they said it may be more realistic to use a lottery system that’s more transparent than the one used this year.
After DeCota expressed his concerns, Pirrung defended his slate’s plan, explaining that it is the only feasible way to come to a solution.
“I like using the word compromise, but most people think that is a way out,” Pirrung said. “No, compromise is usually a win-win. While it’s not an entire win for one side or the other, (it’s) making sure that both sides do get the benefit of something.”
Student housing
Caring For Our Claws’ policy goals around student housing include waiving the requirement for first-year students to live in university housing on campus. Schnarre and DeCota think that the change would reduce overcrowding in residence halls.
Mizzou welcomed over 6,000 first-year students in 2025. Caring For Our Claws cited the recent transformation of study rooms, like those at Johnston and Wolpers, into housing as examples of this overcrowding.
Full-time first-year students are required to live on campus unless they reside with family within 60 miles of campus, live in a registered fraternity or sorority house, are 21 or older, are married, are student-parents or are veterans.
“Students are losing spots to privately study and get what they need to be successful in their student life, not to mention how overcrowding can help spread diseases faster,” DeCota said. “It’s not beneficial for anyone, and waiving that requirement will allow freshmen to move out and be safer in their living space.”
In response, Pirrung-Lewis highlighted actions the university has taken to address the issue, such as providing on-campus housing at the U Centre on Turner apartments.
Student body representation
Both presidential slates emphasized the importance of listening to student opinions. In Pirrung-Lewis’ closing statement, the slate emphasized its desire to improve the connection between the student body and student government.
“We need every student here on Mizzou’s campus to be involved in MSA in the positions that affect their everyday lives,” Lewis said. “I think what me and Brayden are really pushing is for more engagement and more participation in MSA.”
An audience question asked Caring For Our Claws about its relationship with Mizzou’s chapter of Young Democratic Socialists of America. Mizzou YDSA officially endorsed Caring For Our Claws on March 10 despite MSA’s traditionally non-partisan affiliation.
Schnarre, a member of YDSA, said the organization aligns with his platform policies. He also believes politics cannot be completely avoided because every MSA candidate is political.
In his rebuttal, Pirrung expressed the opposite stance.
“By aligning with a political organization, it worries me so much that it’s excluding students that don’t share that same ideology,” Pirrung said. “I don’t think that siding (with) or being endorsed by a political organization is something that the office of presidency at the Missouri Students Association should have.”
When asked how they would equitably represent students with opposing political beliefs from their own, DeCota said their slate will listen to students “no matter what.” Schnarre expressed the importance of listening to different opinions and experiences.
“That’s what politics is,” Schnarre said. “It should be a safe place for us to have our disagreements and agreements and figure out what is best for the student body based on what they’ve told us.”
Class attendance: Stop Day and absence policies
Pirrung and Lewis plan to create a standardized absence policy. During Pirrung’s tenure as Academic Affairs chair in the MSA Senate, he worked with the Faculty Affairs Committee to establish a standardized excused absence policy for bereavement. He said his policy as president would expand on this by allowing excused absences for circumstances such as jury duty and illness.
“It’s about simplifying it for students,” Pirrung said. “Right now, if I were to go to one of my professors and say, ‘Hey, one of my relatives just passed away,’ and they told me that I have to see a death certificate, or any sort of documentation, I feel that is just overstepping a professor’s job in their student’s life. Students should not have to provide that.”
Caring For Our Claws didn’t mention an attendance policy. Instead, their policy focused on reinstating Stop Day.
Reading Day, commonly referred to as Stop Day, is the Friday before finals week. Classes aren’t in session to allow students to prepare for exams, but many students use Reading Day as an end of the semester celebration. Since Missouri law declared Veterans Day an official holiday this summer, the university plans to remove the fall 2026 Reading Day to compensate for the removed school day.
Bringing back Reading Day was one of Caring For Our Claws’ major platform points. The slate members said in their post-debate interview that they don’t anticipate much pushback from Academic Affairs on reinstating it.
“We want to save Stop Day and make sure that the Fall ‘26 Stop Day takes place and that future stop days are preserved as well,” Schnarre said.
MSA voting and election dates
- March 17-19 – Voting period on MU Engage or vote.missouri.edu
- March 17, 9:30-11:30 a.m., Student Center – Pancakes at the Polls
- March 18, 11:00-1:00 p.m., Student Center – Pop Out to Vote
- March 19, 9:00-11:00 a.m., Student Center – Donuts for Democracy
- March 20, 4:00-5:00 p.m., The Shack – Election announcements
The following editors contributed to the editing of this piece:
Maggie LeBeau | [email protected]
Avery Copeland | [email protected]
Maya Bensaoud | [email protected]
Alex Gribb | [email protected]
Chase Pray | [email protected]