Student Government is working to increase student influence in the Board of Trustees regarding the University budget.
Class of 2013 Sen. Eric Reath and Class of 2015 Sen. Patrick Kelly each sponsored a bill in response to students’ interest in the Board’s decisions.
Students pay for 81 percent of the University’s operating revenues, but Kelly said students have no say in how the revenue is spent.
Two bills were passed by the Senate on Dec. 2: one requiring the SG President Emily Yu to report the Board of Trustees’ meetings to the Senate and the other seeking to increase the number of student representatives on the Board’s committees.
Brett Atanasio, a senator for the Class of 2013, is currently the non-voting student representative on the Board.
The Board of Trustees currently only rotates one student between the Alumni Affairs Committee and the Audit Committee. Reath’s bill proposed full-time positions on Board of Trustees’ committees.
The SG president can appoint students through a written executive order to advocate for another student representative on the Board, according to Kelly’s bill.
This legislation also requires the president to report the committees’ decisions to the SG Senate.
“This is a great first step,” Reath said during the Senate meeting. “I urge you all not to only take this first step together, but all the steps to come.”
Mpariser@theeagleonline.com
