Bearcat Voice
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The Bearcat Voice is a student organization at Northwest Missouri State University.
The Bearcat Voice mission statement is to "work towards securing a student voice and student empowerment with the guidance of the student body. Bearcat Voice values are defined as: improving conditions of the students to make authorized decisions; and ensuring and securing a student voice."
The Bearcat Voice was founded January 24, 2002 during a meeting of students organized by then Northwest Missouri State University students Ryan Bauer, Janson M. Thomas and John Lakebrink. Bearcat Voice is based upon the Bulldog Party, a student organization at Truman State University. It was born at Northwest out of the zeal of its leaders to have a student government that was progressive and efficient. The founders of the Bearcat Voice believed that the student government had grown stagnant to the needs of the students it served. They sought to identified problems and fixed them. This was achieved by a grassroots campaign which brought to Bearcat Voice, students who would otherwise not choose to become involved in student government. These students pooled their various talents and developed action plans that were stated on a document known as the platform.
Initially the Bearcat Voice acted as a student political party running slates of candidates for student government and implementing student government support for the Student Association of Missouri. It now as turned to mostly advocacy of student issues on the campus and ceased with support for individual candidates.
Bearcat Voice achieved two noteworthy legislative victories that has opened the door to a more accountable student government at Northwest. In September 2002 in a student body vote, the students ratified two amendments to the SGA constitution that were proposed and campaigned on by Bearcat Voice. The first amendment was known as Proposition A it successfully opened the door for legislative accountability by ensuring the right of five members to call a roll call vote which previously had never happened in the student senate. The second amendment known as Proposition U enabled the student body to rule more directly and circumvent a sometimes ineffiective student senate, by establishing the rights of Initiative, Referendum, and Recall.
Bearcat Voice is named after the Northwest Missouri State University mascot, the bearcat.
