Student Association president Parker Wiseman gave an impromptu speech to over 150 students Tuesday night after state legislators failed to show up for a panel discussion which all had confirmed. The panel discussion was part of Impact Mississippi Week, a week-long series of programs designed to educate and involve students interested in governmental affairs. The discussion was set up to be a question-answer style forum concerning state legislative issues, including tuition increases.
Co-directors of the SA Governmental Affairs Committee Kell Smith and Timothy Jackson planned the event months ago, and Jackson said he had received confirmation from all four individuals.
Smith said he expected to have a good turnout and have questions answered by people who make some of those decisions.
Rep. Andrew Ketchings, one of the four intended panelists, said he had been contacted with an initial interest letter concerning the event and was promised a follow-up letter that would be sent out with additional information.
However, Ketchings never received any additional information from the committee and assumed it had been canceled.
“I would have loved to have come up there,” Ketchings said. “I have a niece at school there and really enjoy that kind of thing.”
Jackson said he was in charge of contacting all four individuals and received confirmation at one time or another from each of them. The other three panelists were Rep. Jim Barnett, (D-Brookhaven), Sen. Terry Burton (D-Newton) and Sen. Edwin Hamilton (R-Maben). Barnett called in the day of to cancel due to illness. All serve as members of the universities and college committees in their respective legislative houses. The SA has yet to hear from Burton or Hamilton, and neither were available for comment.
“I felt that by them not showing up they do not feel we were worthy of what they have to say on some of these issues,” Jackson said. “The whole thing made the Student Association look bad and there were a lot of people as upset as I was.”
Ketchings said he was pretty furious about the whole ordeal after being contacted once and not again until the day of the event. He said the initial information letter only gave a date and did not include the time or location of the forum. Ketchings was contacted in Natchez again on the day of the forum by telephone.
“I came back from lunch, and there was a message saying that MSU would be expecting me at seven o’clock that same night,” Ketchings said. “Natchez is over four hours away, and this message was only about six hours previous to the time the forum was to begin. I had not put it on my calendar since there was no such follow-up information.”
Ketchings left a message saying sorry he couldn’t make it but eventually was able to get in touch with the SA contact who he did not name. Ketchings asked the SA contact why he had not been informed sooner and was not given an answer besides an apology.
“I know they had my address and phone numbers so there’s really no reason that I was not contacted before the day of the forum, especially since I was having to travel to do it,” Ketchings said.
Ketchings said the person he talked to told him “he never got around to the confirmation letter.”
Smith said the empty panel was a complete shock. He said even though this event was not successful, he hopes to do something similar in the spring because students are still looking for some answers.
Wiseman said, “the night was extremely frustrating because there was a lack of prior notification in the representatives and senators but students are still very concerned with how they can prevent the quality of education from slipping.