A Virginia Senate committee has passed a bill requiring each state public college and university to have a non-voting student member on their board of visitors.
The Code of Virginia now states that "the board of visitors of any four-year state institution of higher education may appoint one or more nonvoting student representatives to the board."
The Virginia Student Leadership Alliance, a group of student government representatives from various schools in Virginia, lobbied successfully to get the bill, SB 352, drafted two weeks ago. It aims to change the Code's text to "the board of visitors ... shall appoint one or more nonvoting student representatives to the board," said Tommy R. Smigiel, Old Dominion University student body president.
"The Senate committee [on Education and Health] was the first to hear one copy of the bill. It went to the Senate for amending and it will go in front of the Senate" today, Smigiel said.
Eric Sas, George Mason University student government president, said the Senate Education and Health Committee passed the bill by an 8-7 margin, with all seven Democrats and one Republican voting for the bill.
"We didn't want it to become a partisan issue, but somehow it did," Smigiel said.
Sas said some of the reasons that some legislators did not vote for the bill included complaints of too much micromanagement of boards and impingement onto the territory of the governor.
If both houses approve the bill, which the Senate Committee passed Thursday, it will go to Virginia Gov. James S. Gilmore III (R) for authorization.
Robert Schoenvogel, student member to the University's Board, said a student board member can voice an opinion on issues that affect students but cannot vote.
"With anything that affects students, something involving Honor and the Judiciary Committee, it's good to have a student share their views on that level," Schoenvogel said.
Gerry Stegmaier, student representative to George Mason University's board, said having a student sitting at the GMU Board meetings is essential even though he or she does not have a vote.
"It's absolutely valuable because the school doesn't have the established alumni base that other schools might have," Stegmaier said. GMU "Rector Edwin Meese III has been phenomenal - he treats students identically with the other members."
University Board member Benjamin Warthen said the University's Board is not afraid to discuss any subject with Schoenvogel.
Schoenvogel "is there at all times," Warthen said. "We will talk about anything in front of him - lawsuits, salaries, job evaluations."
Sas said the current provision that the colleges "may" have a student representative was written into law in 1983.
Warthen said the first formally chosen student member of the University's Board joined in 1983.
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