Yesterday we considered how to improve the selection process for the student member of the Board of Visitors. Once the student is selected, there are still a number of ways the position could be changed to give him or her more power to represent students effectively. One of these changes would be to allow more access to Board members during the transition period between the selection and the swearing in of the student member.
The student member of the Board currently has just one Board meeting he or she can attend after his or her selection before being sworn in. The member is selected at the Board’s February meeting and officially sworn in on the last day of the Board’s April meeting. The new student member accompanies the sitting member to the April meeting, including the executive sessions that are closed to the public. The idea of a period during which the student member can observe meetings but not participate is good, but one meeting is not sufficient exposure to a body as complicated as the Board of Visitors to prepare a student to be an active advocate for his or her peers.
Being a member of the Board of Visitors is a lot to ask of a student. The rest of the Board is made up of prominent businesspeople and former politicians who deal with complex issues of law and policy. Throwing a student — typically a third-year undergraduate — into the mix with only a few months of preparation inevitably leaves the student member feeling overwhelmed and underqualified to speak his or her mind. If by the end of a one-year term the student member of the Board understands all of the issues the Board addresses, that would be impressive. Attempting to do so after attending just one meeting — without other contact with the Board — is absurd.
Likewise, the Board’s rules and practices themselves are complicated. The other members of the Board know each other well and many have been on the Board for several years. The procedures of Board meetings have become old hat to many of them, and all of them will have multiple years on the Board to become accustomed to its way of doing business. Just understanding what is going on at a meeting is an uphill battle, let alone deciding what student opinions the Board should consider or what policy options exist.
The short transition period with little preparation means that a student member only really begins to feel comfortable in meetings and confident of his or her opinions by the end of the term. For most of the year, the student member is too unsure of him- or herself to be an active participant in discussion.
Student members of the Board should be encouraged to contact other Board members in the interim between being named to the Board and assuming the position. Board members should go out of their way to meet with the student member and encourage him or her to feel confident about voicing student concerns.
Third-year students thinking about applying for the position should be sure to attend this weekend’s meeting. Even if they are not named to the position, the worst that could happen is they become better informed members of the University community.
More interaction would allow Board members to know the student and communicate their willingness to listen. The new student member would then also have a relationship with the Board and an understanding of its operations before ever serving on it. The end result would be a stronger, surer student voice on the Board.