SUNSHINE LAW COULD OPEN DOORS FOR STUDENTS

Student regents could attend closed-door meetings of their institutions' governing boards under an open-meetings bill approved Tuesday by the Missouri Senate.

The provision involving student regents was an amendment to a larger bill that makes changes to Missouri's Open Meetings and Records Law.

That bill was returned to the House Tuesday on a 29-5 vote.

Critics voiced concern that student representatives would be subject to pressure from fellow students and faculty members to disclose what happened behind closed doors.

But the amendment's sponsor, Sen. Ken Jacob, D-Columbia, said boards can still exclude student representatives from closed-door meetings, provided they take a public vote each time they want to do so.

The vote requirement is a part of the legislation.

Currently, student representatives to boards of regents or curators can't attend closed sessions.

Student representatives can't vote on board business. That won't change under this bill.

Still, Southeast Missouri State University student and former regent Christie Johnson thinks the bill is a step in the right direction.

Johnson's two-year term on the Board of Regents ended in March.

Johnson said the bill could be the first step toward giving student regents the right to vote.

Johnson said student representatives should have the right to vote on issues affecting their schools.

She said Southeast's voting regents listened to and welcomed her views on school issues. But students don't perceive they have a voice if they aren't represented by a voting member, she said.

She said student regents have a right to be at closed meetings where issues such as land transactions are discussed.

But she said she didn't believe student regents should or would want to attend closed-door meetings on personnel matters.

Johnson doesn't expect any visible changes in board policies because a student regent would attend closed-door meetings.

"It is not a matter of rocking the boat," she said. She said the regents have always strived for consensus in their decisions.

Johnson said student regents can keep closed-door secrets as well as any voting regent.

Don Dickerson, president of the Board of Regents, agrees.

"I think all of our student regents have been top-notch young people," he said. "I tend to trust them."

But Dickerson said he doubts student regents want to sit through closed sessions that can last one or two hours.

Some of the regents' meetings, closed and open sessions combined, have lasted eight to 10 hours, Dickerson said.

"I don't know that a young person really is going to want to sit through all that," he said.

Most university matters can be handled in open session, he said.

"By and large, I have generally been pretty much for an open session, and I still am," Dickerson said.