Editorial
Finding a role for students at Trustee Meetings
By Editorial Staff
April 3, 2015
If you are a student, trustee meetings are kind of like folklore. You hear about the trustees, and you get emails about their meetings, but who they are and what they do is pretty mystical. For a few students though, the trustees are colleagues, if only four times year. Most trustee meetings, believe it or not, usually include student representative. They were invited to committee meetings in March, they went to the 1812 leadership circle in New York in December and a few typically linger on campus just long enough to make it to the June meeting as well. What they do there is unclear, and unfortunately it appears that students do not currently have a role at all.
After March’s meeting members of Student Assembly who attended the committees meetings commented on how they were at best left alone at the meetings and at worst literally not offered a seat at the table. Their presence felt symbolic and hollow, a phony gesture to fulfill some well-intended resolution. Trustees did not ask them many questions, and most of the members felt unwelcome to comment on the matters at hand. It is hard to know whom to pin this disconnect on, but it is impossible to say it does not exist. However, while this half-hearted charade is problematic, maybe it has a lesson. The Board of Trustees have committees on Budget and Finance; Admission; Student Affairs; Honorary Degrees; Buildings, Grounds and Equipment; Planning; and Instruction all things that are vitally important to running a college, but not necessarily pertinent to students’ lives.
While the invited members of Student Assembly felt ignored, they also seemed out of place. Can students really add value to conversations about the budget? Do they have the knowledge to contribute to a conversation on development? It is unclear if students could have a productive role in these meetings. At no fault of our own, these subjects exceed our expertise.
That said, students could be a vital resource elsewhere. Unlike the trustees, we all live and work here, giving us privileged insight on certain issues. Who other than a student can speak to student affairs? Who better than a resident can speak to the quality of our facilities? We have specific worth in these committees, but sadly the trustees seem to be squandering a valuable resource when it is right in the room with them. We at The Spectator do not pretend to know how to run a college, but we do know that when you want information you have to have a good source. Students can be useful, informative tools at trustee meetings in the future, but it will require that the trustees discern what advantages we have, and how they can use our perspectives to improve the college collectively going forward.