An MSU student and Iraq war veteran who wants to run for a Student Association executive position can seek election even though he was not enrolled at MSU last semester.
The student, sophomore political science major Aaron Rice, plans to run for SA attorney general. He initially planned to petition the Student Association to exempt recently-returned soldiers from a part of the SA election code that states that candidates for the office must have been enrolled at MSU the semester before the election.
“At first glance, [the SA constitution] is very clear in saying that a student must be enrolled here at State the previous semester to run for secretary or attorney general,” current SA attorney general Seth Robbins said.
After examining the constitution, however, he decided that an article near the beginning of the SA constitution prohibits discriminating based on veteran status, allowing Rice to run.
The article-Article I Section 2-states that all MSU students are members of the SA and that “The SA does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, age, disability, or veteran status.”
“That basically states that we would be discriminating not to allow him to run,” Robbins said. “If he had not been called up for duty, he would have been enrolled at Mississippi State.”
“I appreciate the elections commissioner and attorney general for working with me to find a solution to my problem,” Rice said.
SA elections commissioner Spencer Broocks said he is glad to have an additional candidate.
“We need all the candidates we can get,” he said.
Rice is currently enrolled at MSU and was last enrolled in the university during the fall 2004 semester. That December, he was deployed to Iraq.
The Purple Heart recipient was injured March 18 by an anti-tank land mine and lost his left leg below the knee.
He then spent eight months at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., and now walks with the aid of a prosthetic. He was unable to return to MSU until this semester.
Rice won a seat as an SA senator representing commuter students in fall 2004 but resigned his seat when he found out he would be deployed to Iraq, he said.
“I found out pretty much right after the election, and I knew I wouldn’t be able to serve a full term,” he said. He said he resigned at the beginning of the year to allow somebody else to serve the full term.
Rice, who first began attending MSU during the fall 2002 semester, worked as an intern for Gov. Haley Barbour’s campaign in 2003.
He took a semester off school in fall 2003 to work as a staff member on the campaign and left for marine boot camp in January 2004. This semester is his fourth at MSU.