by Joe Chee / 10.6.2011
COLUMBIA – Elections in the Missouri Students Association Senate last semester left 21 seats vacant, but President Eric Woods said involvement level has improved this fall.
The Spring 2011 elections filled just 50 of 71 seats, but Woods said he’s stepped up promotional activities to spur interest. He said he has made promotions a priority, on the same focal plane as other community project and issues like the Columbia Transit System.
With these activities, he said he has noticed an increase in student emails and more hits to MSA’s official website.
“Sometimes it’s difficult to get people involved, but this year I’ve actually really been encouraged by the amount of interest that we’ve seen,” Woods said. “Kind of more like a ‘we should go to them, and not wait for them to come to us’ mentality, and I really think that’s helping our visibility.”
New senators cannot legally join until next March, though, so MSA is stuck with 50 Senators for now. Woods said he’s happy with that number for now, but he’s still trying to find as many participants as possible.
“[We are] always working on outreach efforts, [but] we’ve hit that hard this semester, in terms of reaching out, getting information, getting feedback, and trying to figure out what we can do to improve our services,” Woods said.
