Missouri’s Congressional delegation aren’t the only ones sweating redistricting.

Conventional wisdom has the state losing a seat in Congress after the 2010 census. The redistricting, however, could affect another political body - the University of Missouri Board of Curators.

State law requires the Board of Curators to have nine members, and that each of those members come from a different one of the state’s nine Congressional districts.

But if the state sheds a Congressional district … what then?

Sen. Chuck Graham, whose district includes the state university’s flagship campus in Columbia, has proposed replacing the ninth member with a voting student. (The board’s current student representative is not given a vote.)

Graham has long tried, and failed, to get the board’s student member a vote.

But this year, the measure has already passed the Senate, and is gaining momentum in the House. In response, the curators called a special meeting Monday morning to vote on on a resolution opposing Graham’s bill. It passed 7-1.

As our higher ed reporter, Kavita Kumar reported today, the curators said they did not believe a student, with only a two-year term, could serve long enough on the board to fully understand the issues involved with governing the state’s university system.

“This is my  sixth  year and I’m certainly still learning,” said Curator Don Walsworth. “For a two-year stint, (the student curator) does not have the background and knowledge to vote on some very important issues.”

The Columbia Missourian also reports that the current student representative to the board, Tony Luetkemeyer, did not participate in Monday’s meeting. It’s not that Luetkemeyer was irked that he could not vote on the resolution– he was taking a final exam at the time of the meeting.