There are currently 13 members of the UNC Board of Trustees. Eight were selected by the Board of Governors, four by the governor and the other is the student body president. For a body making decisions vital to current students, this mix of representation seems inadequate.
The board should move towards amending its bylaws to allow for a yearly election of a student trustee that would serve a two-year term. This would amplify student voices and augment the institutionally lopsided distribution of power in the current bureaucracy of the board.
In its current state, the only student voice on the board is the student body president. While we are not calling for the removal of their position in the body, it is unrealistic and wrongheaded to believe that students are represented by one person elected with a niche interest in student government. It is also wrong to think that those who would be worthwhile student body presidents are those who would best speak and vote in favor of student interests.
It puts the student body president in an unfair position. While they are attempting to cover all the interests and initiatives of student government, they are forced to listen and consolidate the ideas of students to present to the board. But we know student interests are not this simple. Students have varied opinions and multiple perspectives.
If the views of non-students are represented by 12 members, it is not extreme to believe there should be multiple members who are students. Duke has a similar setup.
While any configuration that includes a separate election for student trustees would be a huge step forward, we advocate for two-year terms and yearly elections for alternating seats.
Each year students would run for the position of student trustee. People could run from any year or program. The person who won this election would serve on the board for the following two years, mimicking the two-year terms that some members of the current board hold. In the first year, they would be non-voting.
This would mean there would be three student representatives on the board each year: the student body president, a recently-elected student trustee who does not vote and a voting student trustee. The student trustee would not have to be a current student during the entirety of their term allowing undergraduate juniors and seniors to run.
After the decisions on the renaming of Saunders Hall and the continued power of the board in hearing appeals for suspensions and expulsions in sexual assault cases, the board’s lack of student voices is glaring.
