User:BCV



BCV, Wikipedia contributor since March 17, 2005.


 * August 30, 2005 first contribution to be featured on the main page.

Wikipedia Contributions of Interest

 * Associated Students of the University of Missouri
 * Bearcat Voice
 * Bulldog Party
 * Characters on The West Wing
 * Earl Blaik
 * Missouri Students Association
 * Northwest Missouri State University
 * Student Association of Missouri
 * Truman State University
 * Ventria Bioscience



The Student Association of Missouri ("S.A.M." or "SAM") is a non-profit student association formed in 2001 by a convention of delegates from 12 Missouri college student governments in Jefferson City, Missouri. The association dissolved in 2005 following the decline of the organization to a single member college. All official records were transferred from the Jefferson City, Missouri office to be held for posterity on the campus of Truman State University as of spring 2005. Alumni remain active on electronic lists. The association's stated mission was to "Unite all students of Missouri institutions of higher education and represent the needs and issues important to all students, to lobby the Missouri state government and individual colleges and universities," as well as promoting political participation of students, offering leadership opportunities, and serving as a communication link between students, institutions of higher education, and the Missouri government.

History
From recruitment materials distributed from the Student Association of Missouri it is known that based on the United States Student Association Teri Brickly a student from Northeast Missouri State University in 1991, has an idea of a similar organization for Missouri. At the 'Students for Higher Education Conference' November 8-10, 1991 which was held at Northeast Missouri State University, a group of students form the Missouri Association of Student Governments. In February 1992 the Missouri Association of Student Governments (MASG) holds a conference at Southeast Missouri State University. Speaking at the conference were Governor Mel Carnahan and the Commissioner of Higher Education Kala Stroup. Both private and public universities from throughout the state attended the conference along with one community college. Institutions in attendance were Southwest Missouri State University, University of Missouri, University of Missouri–Kansas City, Cottey College, Washington University, Central Missouri State University, Missouri Western State College, William Jewell College, Southeast Missouri State University, and Longview Community College. At the conference one of the focuses of the students was to obtain a student vote on university governing boards. Due to poor funding and a lack of organization the MASG collapsed. However, like Teri Brickly, Sam Garman a student from Southwest Missouri State University was inspired by MASG and wanted to purse the idea again.

In 1999 two other students, Keith Ziegelman and Jessica Loyet of Truman State University, picked up the idea, and along with Sam Garman attended a conference on diversity held by the United Council of Students of the University of Wisconsin. Sam Garman ran for the SGA presidency at SMS and subsequently won. After he was elected he became consumed with the duties of his office, and thus his focus left the state student association.

The idea did not die, however, the Bulldog Party, a campus political party at Truman State University took hold of the idea while looking for a way to secure a student vote on the Board of Governors. Two Bulldog Party members, Bethany Ordaz and Wayne Yocum, decided to lead the charge in forming a state student association. After establishing a statewide student network, Ordaz began planning meetings of interested students. At one of those meetings the students decided to name their organization the Student Association of Missouri or SAM in honor of Sam Garman. Students at Truman started to plan a constitutional convention for SAM along with students from Lincoln University. Lincoln agreed to host the convention in Jefferson City, and thus became co-hosts with Truman.

Formation
On November 2, 2001, the first Constitutional Convention of the Student Association of Missouri began. Throughout the weekend students from all over the state worked on ironing out a constitution. On that Sunday, November 4th, the delegates approved the Constitution of the Student Association of Missouri. After approving the Constitution, the delegates elected a Provisional Council to make sure the organization became fully functional and to seek funding. The Provisional Council was President Bethany Ordaz of Truman State University, Vice President Keith Ziegelman of the University of Missouri-Rolla, Treasurer Allen Robbins of Mineral Area College, Secretary Danny French of the University of Missouri, Representative Alfonso Porter of Lincoln University and Representative Dena Holmes of Columbia College. Later on November 4, 2001 following the adjournment of the constitutional convention the Student Senate of Truman State University took up consideration of SAM and ratified the constitution becoming the first school to join the newly formed association.

Association Members
 * Truman State University ratified November 4, 2001, approved fee February 9, 2002.
 * Southwest Missouri State University ratified January 24, 2002.
 * Southeast Missouri State University ratified March 11, 2002, approved fee April 20, 2002.
 * Columbia College ratified April 3, 2002. (First private institution to join)
 * Northwest Missouri State University ratified April 9, 2002.
 * Missouri Western State College ratified April 22, 2002, approved fee in spring 2003.
 * Central Missouri State University ratified September 17, 2002.
 * Southeast Missouri Hospital College of Nursing and Health Sciences ratified August 9, 2003.

In January 2002 the provisional council met for it’s first official meeting to discuss strategies to keep SAM moving forward. Governor Bob Holden in his State of the State speech announced massive budget cuts to higher education thus leading to the thought that there is no better time for students to unite and rally against the cuts and continue efforts to protect education. A ballot initiative to levy a new student fee at Truman State University in order to pay membership dues to SAM was passed by a majority of the students. Due to the financial cuts to higher education the SAM provisional council with the aid of other student leaders decided to “Storm the Capitol” in effort to protest the budget cuts. Representative Chuck Graham of Columbia introduced legislation that would grant voting privileges to the student representative on the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

On February 20, 2002 over 50 students from 10 different institutions of higher education gathered at the Capitol to meet with legislators about concerns of funding cuts to higher education, also a petition signed by nearly 10% of the student body at Truman State University in opposition to the budget cuts was given to Governor Holden. Two days later on February 22, 2002 an invitation to student leaders was made by Governor Holden to meet in Jefferson City to discuss the budget cuts. On March 6, 2002 several student leaders met in Jefferson City to speak with Governor Holden and other officials about the effects financial cuts would have on higher education. Over the summer of 2002 the SAM Provisional Council met several times to work on changes to the constitution and the writing of bylaws, as well as working on paper work for incorporation, recruitment strategies, and setting up the next convention. On September 25, 2002 the Student Association of Missouri was granted corporation status by Secretary of State, Matt Blunt.

On September 25-27, 2002 the second Annual Convention was held in Jefferson City, Missouri. The convention consisted of a banquet with speakers: Rep. Bob Behnen, Rep. Ted Farnen, Associate Commissioner of Higher Education, Joe Martin, and Phil Santoli of Lincoln University. On Saturday several workshops were held with facilitators Maggie Brown and Matt McFeeley from the United Council of Wisconsin, Sam Garman and Bethany Ordaz. Bylaws for the organization were adopted and several amendments were made to the constitution. The first official Board of SAM was elected with the following officers, President Bethany Ordaz of Truman State University, Vice President Ryan Bauer of Northwest Missouri State University, Treasurer Adam Schaefer of Southeast Missouri State University, Secretary Kara Arnn of Southwest Missouri State University and Legislative Director Remington Barrett Smith of Truman State University. The board had there first meeting on October 26, 2002 in Columbia, Missouri during which SAM hired a professional lobbyist, Scott Swain, as well as developed a budget, policy platform, and legislative agenda.

Dissolution
In 2003 the Student Association of Missouri came under fire by students at Truman State University who grew concerned about the insularity and questionable effectiveness of the organization. The now-defunct website samrefund.com appeared in October 2003 to immediate controversy. The website offered student members of SAM an easy way to request a refund of their SAM member dues. While the dues were monetarily insignificant -- only one or two dollars -- the symbolic effect was felt when over 200 students requested their dues refund in under a week. The samrefund.com website was terminated after only a month when SAM announced an abrupt change in its member policies: it would no longer accept refund requests by e-mail.

Three months later, in February 2004, the spiritual successor to samrefund.com appeared. The online investigative newsmagazine The SAM Report (originally located at thesamreport.com but discontinued after the dissolution of SAM) provided a new perspective on SAM's finances and political structure. The website generated many hits from all of SAM's member university networks.

In March 2004, the students of Truman State University assembled a petition of over 900 student signatures to put SAM to a referendum at the next student government election. The referendum would decide whether Truman State University would remain a dues-paying member of SAM for the following year. At the election in April 2004, students overwhelmingly chose to terminate Truman State University's affiliation with the Student Association of Missouri.

At the same time that Truman State students were mobilizing against SAM, student leaders from Southeast Missouri State University began a push to pull out of the organization as well. Four out of the five Southeast student representatives to SAM were on record as supporting a complete withdrawal. The Southeast representatives claimed that the leadership of SAM had continually ignored their University, which was a full paying member, and gave priority and favorable treatment to other non-paying institutions.

Two of the student representatives to SAM, Adam Hanna along with former SAM treasurer and Southeast Student Government President Adam Schaefer, ran on the same ticket in the Southeast Student Government election on a platform that advocated pulling out of SAM. Their opponent in the election, Dane Huxel, was also a representative to SAM who favored staying in the student organization. To add to the divisiveness, the fourth SAM representative at Southeast, former SAM Speaker of the Assembly Paul Norman wrote a column in the campaus newspaper favoring withdrawal from SAM and supporting the Hanna/Schaefer ticket. However, Dane Huxel easily won the election and became the Student Government President at Southeast. Hanna was later elected to two terms as Student Government President.

Huxel's victory would not last long. At the first meeting after being sworn in as President, Huxel faced a student senate that overwhelmingly passed a resolution calling for withdrawal from SAM against his wishes. Shortly after the defeat, the university's Board of Regents voted to sever its ties with the Student Association of Missouri.

With the loss of SEMO as a full member and faced by the continuing pressure of The SAM Report on the Truman campus, SAM President Jesse Holcomb resigned on January 13, 2005 for "personal reasons." With the earlier resignation of SAM Vice President Stephanie Amick and there being no aduquate provision for executive succession, SAM was leaderless until supporters of SAM at Truman State University appointed Angela Crawford, a student at Truman (whose only prior experience with the organization was as legislative director) as acting President of the Student Association of Missouri.

The only remaining dues-paying member school, Missouri Western State College, withdrew from the organization on January 31, 2005. On February 6, 2005 President Crawford announced SAM's dissolution before the Truman Student Senate saying that SAM would "no longer operate as an organization." The Student Association of Missouri was dissolved in the following months.

Electoral history
The Bulldog Party has participated in student elections since its incarnation. Its first presidential nominee Keith Ziegelman was defeated in the 1999 student election. Under the leadership of Amanda Brink, Derek Spellman, Chris Ross and John Hilton the party carried on surviving this initial setback to compete in the Spring 2000 election. Bulldog presidential nominee John Halski missed winning the 2000 election by three votes out of over 1100 cast.

In 2001 Matt Brooker and John Hilton were decisively elected president and vice president, respectively and the party won majority control of the student senate for the first time. The party would suffer setbacks in the 2002 election when it failed to win any of the executive board races although it did retain the senate majority. In the 2003 election the party did not nominate a presidential candidate but did endorse an alternate ticket called the Action Party led by presidential candidate Rory Roundtree and included three other Bulldog Party candidates running for executive board. The 2003 election resulted in another setback at the polls. From the Action ticket only Bulldog Party vice presidential nominee Stephanie Amick would be victorious. The party also lost the senate majority for a time, winning only 8 of 20 voting seats but would regain the majority over the course of the term.

In 2004 the party was successful at the polls when its nominee Laura Keck was elected student body president and party again won a majority in the student senate. The 2005 election was also successful for the party. Bulldog presidential nominee Mark Kirtland was elected student body president with 74 percent of the vote, and the party won eight of 15 student senate seats open. During the fall 2005 election, the party won 9 of 10 open seats.

The spring election of 2006 brought an unprecedented election victory for the party. All ten Bulldog Party candidates won their respective elections and claimed a third consecutive presidential win with the election of Angela Crawford as student body president with a 500 vote lead over her opponent.

In the spring election of 2007 the party ran nine candidates who were elected in an uncontested senate race. However, after a record voter turnout, the party's presidential candidate Becky Hadley was defeated by independent Matthew Szewczyk who won by 89 votes.

Student Association of Missouri
During the 2001 student presidency of Matt Brooker, Bulldog Party members Bethany Ordaz and Wayne Yocum, acting through the student senate, helped organize a successful convention of Missouri colleges at the State Capitol Building in Jefferson City, Missouri which resulted in the formation of the Student Association of Missouri which also advocated lobbying the Missouri government on securing a voting student representative on the governing board of all Missouri universities.

Organization
ASUM is governed by a Board of Directors composed of students elected from the various student governments of the UM System. The Board hires an Executive Director, Legislative Director, Assistant Legislative Director and legislative assistants to help operate the organization and implement its legislative agenda.

Member institutions

 * University of Missouri
 * University of Missouri–Kansas City
 * Missouri University of Science and Technology
 * University of Missouri–St. Louis

Relations with Non-UM System students
In 2001 a group of Missouri students formed the Student Association of Missouri, which sought to unite all students in Missouri in a common voice to lobby the state government. ASUM maintained its mission to represent only UM System students and did not recognized SAM as a uniting force. Although officially SAM maintained a position of cooperation with ASUM, the two organizations rarely collaborated and were considered more adversarial. Much of this may have been due to that fact that most of the students behind the formation of SAM were from Truman State University (which maintained a delegation of legislative interns second only to ASUM in the Missouri General Assembly), and ASUM perceived SAM as Truman's own student lobbying arm despite its stated mission. With the dissolution of SAM in 2005, ASUM is again the only student organized lobbying organization in Missouri.

Executive Branch
The executive branch of the MSA consists of the President and Vice President along with the executive cabinet. The president and vice president are elected annually from the student body and run as a ticket during the fall semester. The president acts as head of the executive branch and performs such duties assigned to the office by the MSA constitution. The vice president, in addition to assuming the office of the president if a vacancy occurs, performs duties traditionally associated with treasurer. The president is empowered to appoint assistants that require MSA Senate confirmation, one of these assistants must be designated Chief of Staff. Additionally the president must appoint directors to each of the following executive departments which also require MSA senate confirmation.


 * Department of Student Services
 * Department of Student Activities
 * Department of Student Communication

Each of these departments offer specialized student services that enable the MSA to serve the student body.

The Executive Branch also oversees each of MSA's seven auxiliaries:
 * Box Office
 * Craft Studio
 * Design Center
 * KCOU
 * MUTV
 * STRIPES
 * Student Legal Services

Legislative Branch
The legislative authority of the MSA rests in the senate, which is composed of senators elected annually in both the fall and winter semesters and the nonvoting President and Vice President of the student body. The composition of the senate is established in the MSA constitution. The Senate is chaired by a Speaker elected from the senate. Additional officers of the senate are the committee chairs, Clerk, assistant clerk, Parliamentarian and Sergeant-at-Arms. The senate has six standing committees which are as follows:


 * Academic Affairs
 * Campus & Community Relations
 * Operations
 * Student Affairs
 * Budget
 * Multicultural

The MSA senate also has sole power to impeach and remove from office the members of the other branches of the MSA. As of 2005 the MSA senate is in its 44th session.

Judicial Branch
The judicial authority of the MSA resides in the Student Court which consists of nine justices one of which is designated Chief Justice, who presides over the court and is the principal adminsitrator to the branch. Each justice is nominated by the Court, appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate. The justices serve for the duration of their membership in the MSA or until resignation, removal or death. The Student Court has authority to hear all cases and controversies in law and equity arising under the constitution or by-laws of the MSA and has appellate jurisdiction over all cases from inferior courts established under the MSA. Student Court used to work with the Office of Judicial Services in the peer adjudication process. However, starting in the fall of 2006, a new court, called the Judicial Peer Advisory Council, was set up to hear these cases.

Compensation
Several officers of the MSA are given compensation allowances for the duration of their terms in office which are as follows:


 * President of the MSA: $2097 per fall and winter semester and $1306 per summer.
 * Vice President of the MSA: $1904 per fall and winter semester and $1192 per summer.
 * Director of Student Activities: $1454 per fall and winter semester and $1092 per summer.
 * Director of Student Services: $1454 per fall and winter semester and $1092 per summer.
 * Director of Student Communication: $1454 per fall and winter semester and $1092 per summer.
 * Speaker of the Senate: $1618 per fall and winter semester and $1014 per summer.
 * The Two Clerks of the Senate: $450 per fall and winter semester.
 * Chief Justice of the Student Court: $1250 per fall and winter semester.
 * The President's Chief of Staff: $450 per fall and winter semester.

Current Officers


As of 2007 the current officers of the MSA are as follows:

Offices
The MSA has a suite of offices located in Brady Commons on the campus in Columbia, Missouri. These offices contain work areas for the various student organizations on the Mizzou campus as well as private offices for the MSA President, MSA Vice President and Speaker of the Senate. The senate holds its sessions in the Memorial Union on the Mizzou campus. Student Court can hold closed hearings to review written briefs submitted by the involved parties, or hold open hearings when oral arguments are deemed necessary.

Member groups
The MSA recognizes and has cooperative agreements with some independent student organizations. The Associated Students of the University of Missouri has a good faith agreement to work with the MSA. In recent years MSA senator Daniel French attempted to pass a cooperative agreement with the Student Association of Missouri, the MSA had authorized a delegation to observe the formation of the Student Association of Missouri and the Mizzou delegation was recognized by the Student Association of Missouri but the MSA senate did not vote to join or pass a cooperative agreement with the Student Association of Missouri.