Casey Cox: 'I tell my friends I'm a trustee who also happens to be a student'

When Casey Cox heard the news he was IU's new student trustee, the first thing he did was buy a fiberglass IU license plate and attach it to the back of his beat-up white pickup truck. He is on his second pair of cowboy boots in nine months because he wore out the first. \n"People ask me, 'Are you from Texas?'" Cox said. "'Nope. Indiana.' And I leave it at that."\nBut Cox hardly leaves anything at that. The only boy from his high school just outside Fort Wayne to attend IU, Cox quickly found a home in the IU community. Cox became IU Student Association president in 2003 and is now the newest member of the nine-member IU board of trustees, filling the mandated student trustee role.\nAppointed by Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels this summer after an extensive application and interview process, Cox was selected for the position out of 21 applicants. He said he sees his role as the student trustee as an important one, not exactly giving a voice to the students, but being the most approachable trustee for students to turn to.\n"I tell my friends I'm a trustee who also happens to be a student," said Cox, a second-year IU law student.\nBut Cox doesn't let the student label limit him. He said he considers himself equal standing with the other eight board members, including trustee of eight years Cora Breckenridge. \n"Casey has hit the ground running and we are fortunate to have him on board," she said via email.\nWhile he doesn't have the extensive background other members have, he has one thing the other members don't -- an idea of what students at the University are thinking.\n"Casey has an incredible working knowledge of graduate and undergraduate issues," said Steve Veldkamp, director of the student activities office and assistant dean of students. Veldkamp and Cox worked closely together when Cox was IUSA president and continue to work together since Cox currently works in the activities office as a graduate advisor.\n"So much in IUSA takes so long. You're in a student government and so you have a lot of red tape to cut through," Cox said about his experience as IUSA president. "Things take so long from infancy to completion that sometimes it's well past your administration that it actually happens."\nCox said his administration is partially responsible for a variety of issues that are just now being implemented such as the readership program, including a library drop box in the plans for the renovation of the library and the Quiet Nights initiative. \nVeldkamp said he thinks Cox did more than alright.\nCox admits he doesn't know everything about every issue. He hopes the new chancellor follows in IU-Bloomington Interim Chancellor Ken Gros Louis' footsteps, but can't say whether he should come from inside or outside the University.\n"I want this University to continue to play a greater role in the foundations of the state," Cox said. "I've been in Bloomington six years. It's home to me. I can't ever see a time when IU is not a part of my life"