AggieJohn
06-06-2005, 10:21 PM
A student soon may hold a seat on the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents.
A bill already approved by the House and Senate would allow the governor to appoint a student from each public university system in Texas to serve on its board of regents. The legislation requires Gov. Rick Perry’s signature to take effect.
While the student representatives would not be allowed to vote on matters brought before the boards, they still could attend all meetings, participate in all discussions and have access to all information seen by regular voting board members.
Students from the University of Texas at Austin have been lobbying the Legislature for the past three decades to create a student regent position, said Omar Ochoa, UT’s student body president.
Ochoa, who thinks Perry will sign the bill, said more than 100 student leaders from UT and other universities worked to convince lawmakers during the recently completed legislative session that students are needed on boards of regents.
“ All the hours of lobbying and talking to people really paid off in the end,” Ochoa said. “We’re elated that after 30 years of fighting for this, we’re actually going to get it accomplished.”
Perry has told UT student leaders he supports the concept of a nonvoting student regent. Students will bring “a classroom and campus view” to the decisions made by university regents, Perry said in a letter to UT students.
The deadline for him to sign legislation passed during the session is June 19.
A&M student leaders, believing they already have sufficient influence with regents, did not actively push lawmakers to support the student regent bill, said Jim Carlson, A&M’s student body president.
Most of those leaders were concerned that making one student the official board representative would ruin other students’ ability to interact with regents, Carlson said.
“ I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to having more student voices in the decisions being made on campus,” he said. “But we had a lot of questions and concerns about the bill.”
Another concern is how the governor would choose a single student representative from the nine universities and Health Science Center within the A&M system, Carlson said. The College Station campus — which enrolls nearly half the students in the A&M system — should hold the seat more often than smaller schools such as Texas A&M University-Kingsville or West Texas A&M University, he contended.
The process for nominating students for the post would include several steps.
First, the student government association of each university would send five candidates from its campus to the university system’s chancellor.
The chancellors — who would not be able to see the students’ names or home institutions when examining applicants — would pick the names of at least two candidates to submit to the governor.
The governor then would receive the names of candidates and the institutions they attend when making his appointments.
A student regent would serve a one-year term that would begin Feb. 1.
Ochoa said he thinks most of the concerns raised by A&M student leaders are nonissues. Students still will be able to interact with regents even if there is a student representative on the board, he said.
“ I also think it’s important all campuses are able to send the student regent,” Ochoa said. “Keep in mind that the student isn’t going to just represent the campus they come from. They’ll represent every student in the system.”
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who authored the bill containing the student regent designation, said lawmakers were impressed by the organized effort of students pushing for the change during the session.
“ It’s a win-win situation for the regents and the students,” Zaffirini said. “The regents will not only learn from the students, they will become teachers themselves.”
State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said this time the students had a more convincing argument to get seats on boards of regents.
“ This became a very important issue to them, especially with tuition deregulation,” Shapiro said, adding she was “disturbed” by the dramatic tuition hikes implemented by universities during deregulation’s first two years.
“ When these young people came to talk to me, I said, ‘It’s the right time for this. I’ll help,’” Shapiro said. “The students will help the board hear a bit of a different perspective.”
State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, and state Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station, also supported the initiative.
Brown said he would have liked the bill to give student regents voting power.
“ I think it’s important for the regents to have input from the students,” he said. “All the regents that are out there now were in school 20 years ago or longer.”
Although student leaders from UT initially wanted students to get one of the nine voting seats on university system boards, Ochoa said he is pleased with the nonvoting position.
Most states already have posts for students on the boards of their public universities, he said, adding that only Texas and 10 other states have yet to adopt such a measure.
In fact, 28 states allow student regents to vote, and 22 allow students to set tuition rates, Ochoa said. So he sees the nonvoting regent bill as a good first step for Texas.
“ We’ll look at doing that later,” Ochoa said of getting students voting authority. “I’m just pretty excited we were able to make such an impact on Texas higher education.”
A bill already approved by the House and Senate would allow the governor to appoint a student from each public university system in Texas to serve on its board of regents. The legislation requires Gov. Rick Perry’s signature to take effect.
While the student representatives would not be allowed to vote on matters brought before the boards, they still could attend all meetings, participate in all discussions and have access to all information seen by regular voting board members.
Students from the University of Texas at Austin have been lobbying the Legislature for the past three decades to create a student regent position, said Omar Ochoa, UT’s student body president.
Ochoa, who thinks Perry will sign the bill, said more than 100 student leaders from UT and other universities worked to convince lawmakers during the recently completed legislative session that students are needed on boards of regents.
“ All the hours of lobbying and talking to people really paid off in the end,” Ochoa said. “We’re elated that after 30 years of fighting for this, we’re actually going to get it accomplished.”
Perry has told UT student leaders he supports the concept of a nonvoting student regent. Students will bring “a classroom and campus view” to the decisions made by university regents, Perry said in a letter to UT students.
The deadline for him to sign legislation passed during the session is June 19.
A&M student leaders, believing they already have sufficient influence with regents, did not actively push lawmakers to support the student regent bill, said Jim Carlson, A&M’s student body president.
Most of those leaders were concerned that making one student the official board representative would ruin other students’ ability to interact with regents, Carlson said.
“ I definitely wouldn’t be opposed to having more student voices in the decisions being made on campus,” he said. “But we had a lot of questions and concerns about the bill.”
Another concern is how the governor would choose a single student representative from the nine universities and Health Science Center within the A&M system, Carlson said. The College Station campus — which enrolls nearly half the students in the A&M system — should hold the seat more often than smaller schools such as Texas A&M University-Kingsville or West Texas A&M University, he contended.
The process for nominating students for the post would include several steps.
First, the student government association of each university would send five candidates from its campus to the university system’s chancellor.
The chancellors — who would not be able to see the students’ names or home institutions when examining applicants — would pick the names of at least two candidates to submit to the governor.
The governor then would receive the names of candidates and the institutions they attend when making his appointments.
A student regent would serve a one-year term that would begin Feb. 1.
Ochoa said he thinks most of the concerns raised by A&M student leaders are nonissues. Students still will be able to interact with regents even if there is a student representative on the board, he said.
“ I also think it’s important all campuses are able to send the student regent,” Ochoa said. “Keep in mind that the student isn’t going to just represent the campus they come from. They’ll represent every student in the system.”
State Sen. Judith Zaffirini, D-Laredo, who authored the bill containing the student regent designation, said lawmakers were impressed by the organized effort of students pushing for the change during the session.
“ It’s a win-win situation for the regents and the students,” Zaffirini said. “The regents will not only learn from the students, they will become teachers themselves.”
State Sen. Florence Shapiro, R-Plano, said this time the students had a more convincing argument to get seats on boards of regents.
“ This became a very important issue to them, especially with tuition deregulation,” Shapiro said, adding she was “disturbed” by the dramatic tuition hikes implemented by universities during deregulation’s first two years.
“ When these young people came to talk to me, I said, ‘It’s the right time for this. I’ll help,’” Shapiro said. “The students will help the board hear a bit of a different perspective.”
State Sen. Steve Ogden, R-Bryan, and state Rep. Fred Brown, R-College Station, also supported the initiative.
Brown said he would have liked the bill to give student regents voting power.
“ I think it’s important for the regents to have input from the students,” he said. “All the regents that are out there now were in school 20 years ago or longer.”
Although student leaders from UT initially wanted students to get one of the nine voting seats on university system boards, Ochoa said he is pleased with the nonvoting position.
Most states already have posts for students on the boards of their public universities, he said, adding that only Texas and 10 other states have yet to adopt such a measure.
In fact, 28 states allow student regents to vote, and 22 allow students to set tuition rates, Ochoa said. So he sees the nonvoting regent bill as a good first step for Texas.
“ We’ll look at doing that later,” Ochoa said of getting students voting authority. “I’m just pretty excited we were able to make such an impact on Texas higher education.”