Theo Keith / KCOU News / May 11, 2010 / Get the radio story!
The year started with a rash of resignations from Missouri Students Association Senate leaders. It ended by pushing back a planned constitutional convention that MSA leaders said would make the organization relevant again. In the middle, MSA’s president threw in a plan to restore the roar at MU that got national attention.
Back in October, more than half of the MSA Senate’s committee chairs resigned, most for scheduling reasons.
For the first time in years, only one person, Tim Noce, ran for MSA president.
The president at the time, Jordan Paul, was left to defend MU’s student government.
“I do have firsthand knowledge of slates that did not end up running. I do not know why they did not enter the race,” Paul said. “But the fact there was only one person running was a shock.”
As students returned to campus in January, more bad news from MSA. Senators across the board were quitting, saying the Senate focuses too much on internal regulations and not enough on making campus better.
“There’s no recognition for the amount of work. Nobody would say anything about that,” former senator Sheela Lal said.
Then, the strangest plan of all come when Noce announced his plan to bring a live tiger to MU football games.
“You would like to have a live mascot,” Noce said at the time.
The plan got national attention and criticism after estimates put the plan’s cost in the multi-million dollar range.
Noce shut down the plan soon after.
But now, the big cat idea may have nine lives after all. Noce said he’s been in talks with zoos in Missouri to adopt a tiger, putting up a plaque on the tiger’s exhibit that it was an official Missouri Tiger. It would stay at the zoo, not visit Faurot Field for home football games.
MSA ended the year with hopes of making itself relevant again on campus, putting together a constitutional convention to reform student government.
But it barely got wings before leaders canceled it, saying it just wasn’t the right time of year to work on major plans.
“While we still view it as a necessity, I just don’t think this is the right time in terms of student interest,” Senate Speaker Evan Wood said.
That leaves any hopes of making things better dead until the fall.
Last updated: 10:30 p.m. May 12, 2010
