Indiana Gov. Mike Pence recently appointed IU-Bloomington student Anna Williams as the new student representative on the IU Board of Trustees.
As a graduate student, Williams is on track to earn a master’s of public affairs from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs and a master’s of European affairs from the Institute for European Studies in May 2017, according to a press release.
As an undergraduate student, she earned a bachelor of arts from IU-Bloomington, to which campus she transferred after two years at IU-Purdue University Indianapolis in May 2010.
While at IU-Bloomington, Williams studied international studies and psychology, with academic concentrations in Western Europe and nations, states and boundaries, and minored in political science and Spanish, according to the release.
As both an undergraduate and a graduate student, Williams was heavily involved in campus and university activities, serving on the Indiana Memorial Union centennial planning committee and as a director of the IU Student Association Funding Board. She said she learned rich lessons in both civic engagement and time management from the experiences.
“You can learn things that you’re already learning in academia but that you’re learning in a very meaningful and tangible way,” Williams said. “You’re also exposing yourself to opportunities to help foster IU into an environment and make it better for the people behind you. So it’s also an opportunity to give back.”
She said serving as a student leader prepared her to serve as a student trustee.
“My student involvement has allowed me to learn the University and some of its more inner workings,” Williams said. “But it has also exposed me to things that are amazing and things that we can still improve upon. So I’ll take that very structural knowledge and that structural understanding to the board to help inform my decision making and my voting.”
She said her role as a student trustee does not differ from the roles of the other trustees.
“I’m a trustee, period,” Williams said. “I’m also a student, period. But I think that there are really unique avenues I am able to pursue because I am both a trustee and a student. I think my role on the Board of Trustees is to be a trustee to the best of my ability, just as it is pledged for the eight other members who aren't students. I do think that being a student allows me a unique place to speak for and bring insight to student relations and how large policy decisions will impact students.”
She added that, though she is a student trustee, she is not the only student leader on campus.
“I think that it’s also important to understand that there are still really meaningful campus and university leaders who are students, who are also playing a really meaningful part in developing Indiana University,” Williams said. “I’m not the only student actively engaged. There are many, many students who are doing lots of tremendous work.”
Student trustees serve two-year terms after completing a lengthy application and interview process.
“The first round of interviews goes through a panel of IU student leaders from all IU campuses,” Williams said. “The applicants can come from anywhere in the IU system. So this isn’t a Bloomington thing, this is an IU thing, because IU is more than Bloomington.”
She said she is excited for the opportunity to represent her peers.
“And this is that great moment for me to say now that I get to be a person who sits and says, from my experiences firsthand as a student, I can try and make IU the best as I can for all of its students coming after me.”
