The trustee-selection process is undergoing some change this year.
Life for a student trustee is a delicate balance of schoolwork, committees, clubs and meetings with some of the university’s top administrators.
For Ohio University’s two student trustees, Keith Wilbur and Sharmaine Wilcox, the position keeps them productive and empowered.
OU’s student trustees represent students on the Board of Trustees, OU’s governing body. Students are not able to vote on board decisions, previously a point of contention at OU and among legislators in Columbus.
“If you are very busy, you prioritize things really well,” said Wilcox, OU’s junior student trustee. “That’s something I’ve learned a lot about in the past year.”
Wilcox, a junior studying international business and finance, starts her school day at about 8 a.m. every day.
When she’s not attending to trustee duties, she works with Event Services in Baker Center and is involved with the OU chapter of AIESEC, an international student organization that aims to empower young people for peace and the fulfillment of humankind potential.
Wilbur, a senior studying political science, economics and history, plays the trumpet for the Marching 110, is a member of Kappa Kappa Psi and is pledging Phi Gamma Delta.
His trustee duties include serving as chair of the Center for Student Legal Services board and as a voting member of OU’s Budget Planning Council.
Wilbur has served for the past three years on the all-student University Professor Selection Committee, which awards professors for outstanding teaching, and coordinates marketing for OU’s Center for Student Legal Services.
He also serves on the General Fee Advisory Committee, among other responsibilities.
“I wake up at 7 a.m. every day and I try to go to bed by 1 a.m.” said Wilbur, explaining his time-management strategies. “If you do the work up front, you’ll reap the benefits later.”
As trustees, Wilcox and Wilbur have the ability to enact change in the university.
“I think the compensation of this position is the experience that Keith and I both get to receive,” Wilcox said in an email. “We learn an incredible amount by serving on the board. We also have an excellent opportunity to leave a strong footprint at OU.”
Student trustees are not paid for the position, but are at times in on university decisions that require traveling to events alongside other board members.
Wilcox is also currently on a search committee, which is looking to replace Peter Mather as Secretary to the Board of Trustees.
“I have an equal amount of say in those types of meetings,” Wilcox said. “Whenever I have thoughts or feelings, I just speak out and everyone’s really open to that kind of dialogue.”
In the past, students merely applied to be a trustee, but this year the student body will have a say.
Candidates wanting to be a student trustee must first submit an application to Student Senate.
They must also participate in at least one debate or public forum in order to allow the student body to ask them questions, according to the 2015 Student Trustee Election Insert, which every trustee candidate receives.
Students will get the chance to vote April 14 to 16, concurrent with the Student Senate elections.
Student trustee candidates with the highest number of votes then get sent to the governor’s office. Accompanying those students will be a formal letter of recommendation explaining the election process and results, according to the insert.
This election process has been a topic of debate among members of Student Senate.
In January, four students from both Student and Graduate Senates went to the Statehouse in Columbus to lobby for a more democratic election process.
“Senate has passed multiple resolutions in the past year to open up the trustee selection process,” Caitlyn McDaniel, vice president of Student Senate, said in an email. “We find that an election is a way in which all stakeholders (that is, students of OU) can democratically participate in the selection process.”
Student Senate voted Jan. 21 to form a committee that would work to establish an election process for OU student trustees.
However, the election of student trustees is still largely symbolic, according to senate members.
The Ohio Revised Code states that Ohio Gov. John Kasich has the final say in selecting trustees, regardless of whom OU’s student body votes for.
“If we want to see real shared governance at OU, we need change on campus and in the statehouse,” McDaniel said.
@mayganbeeler
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