2008 Woodie Awards
Blunt vetoes bill for Mizzou board
John Moenster
Issue date: 8/17/08 Section: News
On July 9, Gov. Matt Blunt vetoed Missouri Senate Bill 873, which would have given the student representative on University of Missouri-Columbia's Board of Curators voting power.
According to a letter written to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Gov. Blunt identified six reasons why he vetoed the bill. First, Blunt said it would create a "stakeholder" representative and that the other nine members of the board currently do not represent a group of university stakeholders. Second, Blunt said that as written, the bill would make it difficult to find student representatives in the future.
Other reasons he cited were that the student representative position is "transitional" and the student's two year term "experiences a much greater turnover" than the other positions on the board and that this policy would be inconsistent with the other institutions within the University of Missouri system.
Gov. Blunt stated that additional voting power would create potential for conflicts of interests by giving one area of student life a stronger vote over other areas. Gov. Blunt went on to state that the legislation was also "fiercely opposed by many members of the higher education community."
The bill passed 31-2 in the Senate and 100-47 in the House of Representatives. Twenty-three Senate votes and 109 House votes would be necessary to override Gov. Blunt's veto.
Following Gov. Blunt's veto, the Associated Students of The University of Missouri (ASUM) launched the "Students For Overriding Gov. Blunt's Veto" group on Facebook, which currently has 1,027 members supporting its cause.
Meghan Gardner, a junior at University of Missouri-St. Loius and member of the group, e-mailed her local Representative Belinda Harris and posted the response on the discussion board.
"I met [Rep. Belinda Harris] when I was in high school," Gardner said. "She told us if we ever needed anything or ever wanted to know more about a political issue to write her, and when I saw the Facebook group I immediately thought of her."
According to a letter written to Secretary of State Robin Carnahan, Gov. Blunt identified six reasons why he vetoed the bill. First, Blunt said it would create a "stakeholder" representative and that the other nine members of the board currently do not represent a group of university stakeholders. Second, Blunt said that as written, the bill would make it difficult to find student representatives in the future.
Other reasons he cited were that the student representative position is "transitional" and the student's two year term "experiences a much greater turnover" than the other positions on the board and that this policy would be inconsistent with the other institutions within the University of Missouri system.
Gov. Blunt stated that additional voting power would create potential for conflicts of interests by giving one area of student life a stronger vote over other areas. Gov. Blunt went on to state that the legislation was also "fiercely opposed by many members of the higher education community."
The bill passed 31-2 in the Senate and 100-47 in the House of Representatives. Twenty-three Senate votes and 109 House votes would be necessary to override Gov. Blunt's veto.
Following Gov. Blunt's veto, the Associated Students of The University of Missouri (ASUM) launched the "Students For Overriding Gov. Blunt's Veto" group on Facebook, which currently has 1,027 members supporting its cause.
Meghan Gardner, a junior at University of Missouri-St. Loius and member of the group, e-mailed her local Representative Belinda Harris and posted the response on the discussion board.
"I met [Rep. Belinda Harris] when I was in high school," Gardner said. "She told us if we ever needed anything or ever wanted to know more about a political issue to write her, and when I saw the Facebook group I immediately thought of her."
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