No additional applicants chose to vie for the upcoming school year’s student-trustee position despite a weeklong extension from Ohio University’s Student Senate.
The senate’s committee in charge of organizing the student-trustee selection process originally stopped accepting applications March 5, when eight were received. Though only five candidates make it to the second round of interviews, senate Vice President Roger Jones said he would’ve liked to see at least 10 applicants if only to make the process more competitive.
Student trustees are an appointed student representative on the OU Board of Trustees. OU’s student trustees have access to executive sessions but are unable to vote.
The eight applicants represent a medley of OU students, including freshmen, sophomores and one junior applicant. Five of the applicants are male.
Four of the applicants are studying political science, but other majors range from Spanish to industrial systems engineering.
Seven of the students are involved in Student Senate. As a whole, however, the applicants cover a variety of extracurricular groups including the Athena yearbook, the Sierra Student Coalition, Habitat for Humanity, and the Global Leadership Center.
An interview process and a review by the senate committee will narrow the applicant pool down to five students, whose applications will then be forwarded to the office of OU President Roderick McDavis. Jones said he would like McDavis to receive the applications by April 11.
After McDavis approves them, the applications are then sent to the office of Ohio Gov. John Kasich.
Kasich will appoint one student trustee to serve a two-year term, replacing student trustee Danielle Parker, whose term is complete at the end of Spring Quarter.
There are multiple factors that can go into determining the next student trustee, including experience on campus and time available to commit to the position, said Allison Arnold, a current student trustee. Both current student trustees are juniors studying public relations in the Scripps College of Communication.
“Most, if not all, of my experience had to do with Republican politics on campus,” Arnold said. “I think, for me, it just ended up being that I had enough time to dedicate to the position.”
The student trustee has a large reading component, and applicants should be sure to understand the amount of research they will have to do on issues, she said.
“My best advice … is to really read about the position and the issues before you decide what your stance is on a specific issue that comes to the student trustees,” she said.
Student trustees have to learn about and discuss any issue coming before the OU Board of Trustees. Recently, those have included tuition increases, capital improvement plans and the decision to acquire land for an extension facility of the OU Heritage College of Osteopathic Medicine.
The committee in charge of reviewing the applications will begin interviewing candidates at 1 p.m. Thursday and will finish up by 5 p.m. next Tuesday.
“We’re looking for the perfect student who can represent OU — not just the students but what is best for the university — to the board,” Jones said.
bv111010@ohiou.edu
