of the communication had to go through members of the university administration to get the work done.” Nick recalled his surprise at learning that can’t discuss business with “trustees each other outside of meetings. So I had to get used to that, since that is what I had done previously with student government.” Samantha reported, had to learn about state “I regulations, open government laws, open door meetings, and I even had to read our state’s regulation manual.” Beth pointed out, had to learn about the appropriate spaces “I and ways that I could communicate in the role of student trustee.” Molly explained: You can’t have trustees talking outside, but I talked to this person in the administration and he tells the other trustee and that is allowed. So just learning some of the ways that they [the board] operate was very interesting. The Governor The participants also highlighted the impact the governor had on time on the board. Molly shared that the governor wanted block tuition, and even though all “really of the research indicated it did not improve graduation rates or retention, he still pushed really hard for it.” During Jon’s term as student trustee, the governor of his state made it very well known that he did not want student fees raised, yet we desperately needed a new student union. That was hard because all of the trustees were appointed by the governor, so the new student union became a non-starter. The governor of Nick’s state, similarly, not want student fees to go up, but “did this was a challenge because we were going to have to find the money somewhere.” Alexis also highlighted the relationship between the trustees and the governor: Being on the board is a political position first and foremost. You are like appointed by the governor, so you have to be like super buddy-buddy and from the same party as the governor at the time.
of the communication had to go through members of the university administration to get the work done.” Nick recalled his surprise at learning that “trustees can’t discuss business with each other outside of meetings. So I had to get used to that, since that is what I had done previously with student government.” Samantha reported, “I had to learn about state regulations, open government laws, open door meetings, and I even had to read our state’s regulation manual.” Beth pointed out, “I had to learn about the appropriate spaces and ways that I could communicate in the role of student trustee.” Molly explained: You can’t have trustees talking outside, but I talked to this person in the administration and he tells the other trustee and that is allowed. So just learning some of the ways that they [the board] operate was very interesting. The Governor The participants also highlighted the impact the governor had on time on the board. Molly shared that the governor “really wanted block tuition, and even though all of the research indicated it did not improve graduation rates or retention, he still pushed really hard for it.” During Jon’s term as student trustee, the governor of his state made it very well known that he did not want student fees raised, yet we desperately needed a new student union. That was hard because all of the trustees were appointed by the governor, so the new student union became a non-starter. The governor of Nick’s state, similarly, “did not want student fees to go up, but this was a challenge because we were going to have to find the money somewhere.” Alexis also highlighted the relationship between the trustees and the governor: Being on the board is a political position first and foremost. You are like appointed by the governor, so you have to be like super buddy-buddy and from the same party as the governor at the time.
Cunningham-dissertation-12-12.docx