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   The Assembly of the University of Arkansas – Monticello exists as the ruling legislative body for the development and revision of educational policies and programs of the UAM campus. This means they have the legislative powers on local educational policies including:

   • Admission requirements.
   • Curriculum and courses.
   • Degrees and requirements for degrees.
   • Calendar and schedule.
   • Awards of honors and honorary degrees.
   • Student affairs.
   • Interpretation of its own legislation.

   All students, faculty and staff can freely attend the meetings of the Assembly. The agenda for upcoming meetings even gets sent through student e-mail beforehand. Very few students attend however.

   Furthermore, student representatives get appointed to the Assembly and their membership includes the right to vote on many key issues affecting the campus. At the last meeting, for example, such proposals including a change in the minor, the addition of an ROTC program, the deletion of an entire major and minor, and the addition of a new class in the Arts and Humanities all passed.

   Conceivably, many students could feel unthreatened by such rulings. However, an issue could very well arise during these meetings which students may not be willing to embrace so easily. It is true that leaving decisions in the hands of the UAM administration, faculty and staff is definitely not dangerous. This is because they generally try to carry out their plans with the best interest of students in mind. But shouldn't students want to know and possibly disagree with decisions made about their future?

   On average, student attendance at these meetings can be calculated proficiently on one hand. Maybe scheduling conflicts exist during the meeting times or perhaps those times are simply not publicized enough. There could surely be dozens of reasons for nonattendance. When decisions made on a regular basis by this Assembly can greatly affect UAM students, their voices should however be heard.

   Students have been appointed to the Assembly to represent different departments on campus in the meetings. In fact the Assembly Bylaws state that “each academic unit head shall supervise an election in which the faculty of that unit elects one of its students to Assembly membership.” The Student Government Association president, who has automatic membership, also appoints 12 additional students to serve as members of the Assembly.

   Some departments have yet to elect a student representative though. Likewise, some student representatives have also not been attending the meetings in the past years. The only meeting held this year had less than 10 students present.

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