blog

On May 16th, after nearly 12 years of fighting for the issue, the Associated Students of the University of Missouri succeeded in passing a bill through the Missouri legislature giving voting power to the student representative on the University of Missouri’s governing board. The Board of Curators consists of 9 members – one for every congressional district and an ex-officio student representative. Missouri is expected to lose a congressional district after the 2010 census and will therefore only elect 8 representatives; one short of its constitutionally mandated 9. The bill passed by ASUM takes advantage of this likelihood by giving the 9th voting slot to the student representative.  After staying out of the debate on the bill, the Board of Curators came out strongly against the bill at the last minute, arguing that students lack the experience to make good decisions and would be biased because they represent a constituency.

Read more from STL Today
Read the board of curators’ statement opposing the student vote (PDF)
More from the Columbia Tribune
More from TheManEater.com