7 to run in next trustee election

The IU Alumni Association validated seven candidates for the trustee position up for election this year, including incumbent Cora Smith Breckenridge. The seven candidates turned in nomination packets including 100 signatures from IU alumni supporting their recommendations, in accordance with state law. \nBreckenridge said her experience as the longest-tenured member of the board of trustees is one of her biggest assets coming into the summer elections. She said that her commitment makes her a strong member of the board.\n"I think a trustee must be willing to give time and commitment ... It's a very time-consuming position," Breckenridge said. "I think (my commitment is) very evident." \nOne position opens on the board each year, with members of the IU Alumni Association voting on the candidates. After the April 1 deadline, resumes of each candidate are produced, coupled with photographs and sent to IUAA members with a ballot. \nThe ballots are sent out after graduation and collected by June 30, when they are counted in public at the Herman B Wells Library. Candidate Chris Sautter said he believed voter turnout was far too low in trustee elections, and that he tried to reach out to as many alumni as he could to try and get them to participate. \nThe IU board of trustees consists of nine members, including one current IU student. The governor appoints six of the trustee positions, including the student position. The other three positions are filled through elections, with winning candidates serving three-year terms.\nBreckenridge was first elected to the board in 1997, and has served in her current term since 2003. Running against her in the summer will be Sautter, Trina Miller, Philip Eskew, Steve Sanders, Carolyn Louise Jordan and Steven Lloyd Kellam.\nBreckenridge said having at times served as the only minority, woman or former educator on the board of trustees gave her a "particularly sensitive perspective that many of (her) colleagues did not have." \nShe said the position a trustee holds within the IU system is one of great importance, because the trustees must be able to make policy without becoming too involved in administration. Breckenridge said she believes that such qualities have always been her strength.\n"Serving on the board of trustees is definitely a position of giving back to the institution," she said. "I need to be very careful, and have always been very careful to listen (to the alumni)." \nSautter, whose daughter is an IU student, said he thought having the perspective of a parent would make him a valuable member of the board. He said he believed having someone like that serve as a trustee might alleviate some of the concerns regarding tuition increases, a hot-button issue with the board. \n"If elected, I would be the only trustee who is the parent of a current IU student," Sautter said. "Some of the trustees are a little bit out of touch with the needs of ordinary working families who are putting their kids through college, and I know how those parents feel, because I feel it every time I get a tuition bill."\nSautter continued to pound away at the issue of tuition costs, saying that he thought raising tuition hurt more people than just students and their families. He said IU students are forced to choose alternate careers after graduation simply to pay off the debt incurred by paying for college.\n"As an institution, Indiana University has to confront this, and figure out a way to make college more affordable," Sautter said. "I would bring a perspective and a sensitivity, as a parent, that no one else have on the IU board of trustees"