in the 1970s, students asked for voting representation on the governing boards of suny colleges. in 1971, the state legislature added five student voting members to cornell's board of trustees. in 1975, the legislature added a non-voting student seat to the boards of all suny units. two attorney general of the state of new york opinion letters reduced the parliamentary rights of the student members to participate at meetings. these documents indicated that the student members were not in fact public officers. for this reason the attorney general said the students might be taken to court for their decisions. in 1977, another statutory amendment made student members of suny councils and boards subject to the nys public officers law or nys general municipal law and granted student representatives parliamentary powers of moving or seconding motions and of placing items on the agendas of the bodies. finally, the legislature gave full voting rights to the student members in 1979, resulting in the students of all suny units having voting representatives, except for the nys college of environmental science and forestry. finally, in 1986, the legislature gave the student representative of that college voting rights as well.