Although students should align themselves behind the push for representation on the board, approving a hefty student fee is not an efficient or effective means of helping the task force achieve its goal. MSA would do better to step up lobbying efforts and continue fighting alongside other state universities through the one-year-old Coalition for Student Representation - an alliance of higher education institutions seeking to secure voting seats for students on their governing bodies. The assembly's current funds enable it to continue both of these activities without exacting an additional charge from students.
Poll results released by the state Office of the Governor reveal that 73 percent of Michigan voters would give their affirmative vote to a student regent ballot proposal, yet bringing the issue to a referendum vote proves a difficult task. The path MSA chose by asking for a fee only complicates the endeavor.
Should students approve the fee, the regents also must vote to allow MSA to levy the charges. As the fee would constitute a step toward lessening the regents' power, board members would have little incentive to give their approval. But if the board did acquiesce, success in gathering 310,000 signatures would still be far from guaranteed.
To its credit, the task force has already armed itself with contacts at the same signature collection firms employed by the office of U.S. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Michigan). Nevertheless, the professional headhunters will undoubtedly encounter difficulty in compelling 310,000 voting adults - most of whom graduated from college decades ago - to petition for a cause which does not directly affect them. Although voters would likely support the push for a student regent if lawmakers placed the issue on the fall ballot, the average voter would likely prove too apathetic to support a signature drive. The result: 400,000 wasted student dollars.
In working with Michigan State University, MSA recently succeeded in securing Rep. Lingg Brewer (D-Holt) to sponsor a bill in the state House of Representatives to place the student regent issue on the ballot. The new sponsorship constitutes a large step forward from last year when MSA had no definite support in either house. While the bill will likely slide through the Democrat-controlled House, it will still be laid to rest on the floor of the Senate, where it faces conservative opposition. Having conquered one house, however, lobbyists now have more surety to back future efforts.
MSA has made appreciable progress in organizing and solidifying its quest for a student regent in the year since it first requested a fee to fund a signature drive. But flaws inherent in the process of securing student dollars to fund a signature drive with only a marginal likelihood of success eliminate it as a practical means of winning a student regent. The MSA task force, in alliance with other state universities, must remain committed to lobbying the Legislature and furthering efforts to rally students and the general voting population behind the issue. Since it will likely not effect the creation of a student regent, students should vote "no" on MSA's student regent ballot question.