Student groups speak with UM Board of Curators

The University of Missouri Board of Curators heard out several students before Thanksgiving break.

More than a dozen student groups spoke to the UM System Friday afternoon.

Students voiced a wide variety of issues, including school-sponsored child care, graduate student stipends, and the way schools handle protests and concerns.

The board, with new interim president Mike Middleton and MU Chancellor Hank Foley took part in what they called a listening session.

Groups like the Forum on Graduate Rights and MU Policy Now came up to the microphone. Brittani Fults, a graduate student and member of MU Policy Now, said she hoped the System included students in important decisions, including the hiring of a new system president.

“It’s easy to hear us,” Fults said. But it’s another thing to see us, to recognize us, to include us in decisions that impact our lives.”

The discussions follow a week of turbulent protests on the MU campus over a lack of response to racially charged slurs and vandalism this semester.

One of the big rallying cries of the protest was a lack of inclusion for both minority and graduate students in big decision-making.

Brittani Fults, a second year graduate student, said she hoped the board acknowledged the problems raised rather than just listened.

“It’s easy to hear us. But it’s another thing to see us, to recognize us, to include us in decisions that impact our lives for the long term. Even if we’re here for just 4 years.”

The board held the meeting until 6:00 p.m. The group Concerned Student 1950 was slated to speak.