Amanda Roden
Year: Sophomore
Major: Spanish
Hometown: Delaware, Ohio
Activities: Student Senate, OU Know Noise Task Force, OU Baker University Center Lower Level Lounge Committee, University Curriculum Council, Foreign Language in Elementary Schools, Ohio Program of Intensive English Conversation Partner
What do you believe qualifies you the most to serve on the Ohio University Board of Trustees?
Besides my love of Ohio University — I’ve really fallen in love with the place after being here for a year-and-a-half now — the leadership ability that I have grown up with. I have really had great leaders the entire time to show me the way. My dad has been pushing me forward the whole time, I’ve had great teachers, a lot of great role models, so I think that’s really helped me to be able to talk to adults well, talk to important people, and make a good first impression. I’ve done a lot of fundraisers, so I can speak in front of people. I’ve worked in assemblies, or I’ve made assemblies and talked in front of groups of thousands of people and (I have) been able to handle myself in those kinds of situations. So I think that’s what really sets me apart.
What experience do you have, besides being a student, that gives you insight into students’ priorities?
Being on Student Senate has really helped me be able to see different student priorities. We have a lot of different commissions so when they bring back their opinions from the students from (…) from the Women’s Commission and the LGBT Commission, I think that’s really helped me be able to get to see a lot of the different groups on campus. As well as working with a lot of different varied groups on campus, I am a part of Spanish Club, and I teach Spanish in elementary schools, which helps me get out of just the campus things as well. And like I said, Student Senate. Also, the Student Program Review Board, (which) is part of the University Curriculum Council, helps with interviewing students when we review the programs and different things. So I think that really helps me get to know students well.
Are there any recent Ohio University Board of Trustees decisions that you feel strongly about or that you do not agree with?
I think they have been mostly working on a lot of things lately. I’ve been in Spain for the last three months, so I can’t say that I’m caught up on all of their most recent decisions. I know that something they’re working on currently is the voting issues for the student trustees, and I think that will be very interesting to see how those turn out. (…) But I haven’t heard arguments either way, that would lead me one way or another. But I’ve actually been away for a little bit, so I’m still sort of adjusting.
What issues do you think are most important for the Ohio University Board of Trustees to address?
I think currently, student safety is one of the best ones, as well as the party school image, but those are a lot of also day-to-day things that the board does not actually play in as well.
However, I think something that’s really important is the fee issue, the tuition issue, as that rises to be looking at that and the programs we’re cutting, and which ones are the best and how to review those. One of the issues that we actually have on the program review board for the (University Curriculum Council) is that there’s no way to actually measure the productivity of each individual program at the university. So I think that would be something that would be really important when we’re going around and looking for programs that need to be cut because we have a hard financial crisis at this time, unfortunately decisions will have to be made. But, when we’re going around looking at those I think it would be a good idea to have something more substantial to be able to measure who’s doing well and who needs more help and who needs a little bit less of the resources that they have now. So I think that’s something that would be very important.
What is your stance on whether student trustees should or should not be given voting rights?
I believe that if there are faculty members on the Board of Trustees and they have voting rights, then I think that students should too. But I see that there’s a conflict of interest as far as the students go because if we had to make a decision on money, such as a tuition raise or a general fee raise or things like that, I can see the conflict of interest there between voting the way the students want — obviously the students don’t want to pay more money — or voting on what’s best for the university. However, as a student trustee you’re not hired to be a representative of the students as constituents. You’re supposed to do what’s best for the students and what’s best for the university as a whole and be the voice of the students.
So, I think if whoever has the job understands the concept of the job and (…) the entire university, not just a representative of all the (things the) students want, then I think that there’s no issue with the voting rights, (and) that they would be able to make a logical decision based on facts and what’s best for everybody.
In general, what are the main things you would like to accomplish in the student trustee position?
I would like to get a little bit more visibility for the student trustee position, try to make sure that I would get to know a few more students. I know that, as a student trustee, you get to meet a lot of very important people on campus that aren’t students, but I think that their job is to get to know the students and get to know what they want and be able to (relay) their voice to the Board of Trustees. There’s only two of us and a boardroom full of very important people, so you have to be very well informed. So I think that will be something that’s very important, as well as strengthening relations in the Athens community — making sure that I’m out at community events as well, strengthening those relations. I think that there’s sometimes strain between the university and the Athens community, and it would be important for me to try and help those relations.
