Groups lobby for BOG student vote

The Student Association of Missouri and the Bulldog Party of Student Senate have been working on a bill that would give voting privileges to student representatives on governing boards in Missouri's four-year public universities and colleges.

This new bill is a revised form of last year's House Bill 280, according to a Feb. 6 Index article. Student Senate passed two separate resolutions supporting House Bill 280 at its Feb. 2 and Feb. 9 meetings. Both resolutions were vetoed by Senate President junior Ryan Walkiewicz because he said there were several problems associated with the legislation.

SAM President senior Bethany Ordaz said the new bill cleans up the confusion that existed with the old House Bill 280.

"The bill from last year had confusing language," Ordaz said. "The new bill, although we have not seen it in its final form, addresses all the arguments there were with HB 280."

Junior Remington Smith, senator  and SAM member, said SAM has student senators in Jefferson City, Mo., to support and help write the new bill.

"SAM gave them the initial idea of what we wanted and recommendations about the bill," Smith said. "Senator Jon Dolan is sponsoring the bill, and he sent it to Senate legislative research."

Smith said the bill should be complete Monday and will be heard at a hearing Tuesday. Smith said he did not anticipate any problems with the bill passing the state Senate because Bill Foster, the chairman of the Senate education committee, said he supports the bill.

Sophomore Leslie Contarini, student senator and SAM member, said passing the bill in the House would be much more difficult, however.

"The education committee [of the House] has only a limited number of bills that they can send out [each year], and they have to deal with higher ed, secondary ed and elementary ed all in one committee," Contarini said. "They just want to make sure the most important bills in the state get through. Our bill is low on their priority list."

Smith said giving a vote to student representatives on each school's governing boards has been a project the Bulldog Party has been working on for years.

"Currently they have speaking privileges, but when it comes down to the vote, they can only voice their support or opposition for an idea," Smith said. "Our goal is to grant them voting rights in some capacity."

Smith said SAM also has put a great deal of effort into getting the legislation passed.

"As the Student Association of Missouri, we have been discussing the issue for a long time," he said. "It was just a matter of finding the cleanest way to state it. We've left it up to the professional, and hopefully he'll come up with a good, strong bill to revise the statute."

Ordaz said that although it was unclear whether the bill will pass, she is positive that it will gain broad support.

"I know that this bill is something that all the schools are really going to want to back because it's so clear," Ordaz said.

Contarini said Senate will be sponsoring "Storming of the Capitol" on Tuesday when the new bill will be brought to the state Senate. SAM is sponsoring a bus for those who want to go.

The event is expected to attract 500 to 700 students from SAM member schools in Jefferson City, Mo., to lobby for higher education purposes.

"The Senate education committee is going to hear the Senate bill Feb. 25, the same day we storm the capitol," Contarini said.