Missouri schools unite to lobby government

By: Megan Henderson

Posted: 2/18/08

Universities in Missouri and their students are all affected by the decisions of the state representatives and senators. A group of student leaders from universities across Missouri have come together to create the Missouri Higher Education Consortium (MHEC) for the purpose of lobbying for higher education.

Members of UMKC's Student Government Association (SGA) attended the MHEC conference on Feb. 7 and 8 in Jefferson City, Mo. SGA President Sean McClain, Executive Vice-President Tara Kloeppel and Comptroller DaRon McGee joined representatives from 12 other public universities in Missouri to lobby for student interests.

"Depending on which school you are from, it affects what's important to you," McClain said.

Presidents and vice-presidents of the 13 student governments first met midway through the fall semester, McClain said. They decided to outline a few issues they felt were of the most importance to the students on their campuses.

"We decided something we could do to make a statement would be a legislative position book," he said. "…We decided that we could reach ground on five different issues."

During the February meeting, the group "stormed the capital," McClain said, distributing pamphlets outlining the five issues in order to influence state legislators. Though all five issues are important, McClain said, of the five issues, he felt the proposal of the voting student curator was of the most importance to UMKC students.

"I think for students in the [University of Missouri] system, the biggest push right now is the voting student curator," he said. "That's something I definitely think is a priority because we've been working on it for so long."

The pamphlet developed by MHEC and distributed to state legislators included recommendations supporting the voting student curator, loan forgiveness, the textbook transparency initiative, lowered tuition for veterans and funding for healthcare programs at Missouri institutions.

Two other important issues discussed at the February meeting were campus sustainability and getting students involved politically, Kloeppel said.

"As students, we should desire change and these two action items would enable us to accomplish that," she said. "After meeting with leaders from other campuses, we were inspired to create programs on our campus that would remain after we had left UMKC." She and McClain are currently brainstorming ways to do this, she said.

In the SGA meeting last Wednesday, McGee discussed the trip with the Student Senate.

"They were all very supportive of the issues of healthcare and tuition for veterans," he said. "Tara and I got to speak with the Speaker of the House. … It was a really good venture."

In a later interview, McGee said he and Kloeppel met with the Senate caucus chairwoman, the speaker pro tem and other state legislators.

"[Tara and I] were introduced on the floor of the Senate for what we were doing," he said.

The MHEC is unique, McClain said, and he hopes the unified group of students from across the state will be able to affect change.

"There's been no organization that we know of that has unified all the public universities in the state of Missouri," McClain said. "…It's more effective when you have a larger constituency."

mhenderson@unews.com