Students should select the student trustee

The Indiana General Assembly amended the law in 1975, creating the position of student trustee to represent student interests on the IU Board of Trustees.

It’s nice to think that students have a say in IU’s real decision-making body. But student trustees are chosen by the state governor, not by their peers. That must change if students are to have a trustee who is truly accountable to them.

Cora Griffin is the current student trustee. I do not criticize her performance here. However, I increasingly question the system that will choose her replacement when her term ends in June.

The trustees have the final say on issues that affect students intimately. They set tuition and fees, and they establish student codes of conduct.

And as the student trustee is a full member of the board with the same powers as his or her non-student colleagues, it is all the more important that the student trustee accurately represents the wishes of his or her constituents.

It would make sense for students to actually choose whom they think would best represent their will on the board. Unfortunately, reality seldom makes sense.

Instead, the governor chooses the student trustee from a list of 10 names sent to him by a “search and screen” committee. The governor appoints five other trustees, while alumni elect three.

As the General Assembly already allows alumni to elect their trustees, one would think they would agree with the idea that certain institutional stakeholders should have a certain level of control over who represents them on the board.

IU’s funding situation has changed dramatically since the student trustee position was created. Students now provide the majority of IU’s funding, while the state provides a small, decreasing amount.

The General Assembly should change the way the student trustee is chosen to reflect this.

For all the criticism that can be leveled at members of student government, and all politicians, for that matter, they are at least accountable to their constituents through free and fair elections.

It’s a problem that the one student with a say in IU’s final authority is not chosen the same way.

I certainly don’t count myself among the IU Strikers, but I understand their frustration with IU’s decision-making process.

It’s great that we have members of student government sitting on all kinds of campus boards and committees. But we need a real representative chosen by us — not by the state — on the Board of Trustees.

We don’t know whether or not the student trustee accurately represents our interests, because the selection process does not allow the student trustee to demonstrate a popular mandate.

Opening the trustee position to a popular election will help alleviate the frustration many students feel about their voice in IU’s governance.

We are adults, just as alumni are. And we are providing the majority share of IU’s funding.

Why can alumni elect their representatives while we cannot elect ours without being subjected to the governor’s veto?

The General Assembly must make the student trustee position elected by IU students across all campuses.

Until then, the student trustee will not be the students’ trustee.

­— danoconn@indiana.edu