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NEWS
| JAN. 24
UT System
300 signatures go to Austin
Austin students will present the
petition, which asks for a student regent seat.
By Angela
Bates
Contribution to The Shorthorn
Students asking for a designated student regent
seat collected 300 signatures this week and will mail them to Austin
today.
Jason White, business administration graduate student, and other
UT students collected names and addresses for a petition requesting
equal voting rights for a specified student regent. Petitions across
the UT System are being sent to Katie King, UT-Austin student body
president, who will present them to legislators in February.
White is the Graduate Student Senate president here and sits on
the System Student Advisory Council, which reports to the regents.
He and the other organization members must petition as students,
not as leaders.
“It’s been real slow,” he said. “Supposedly,
there’s more on the way, but unless there’s someone with
a significant amount of signatures coming, I will go ahead and mail
them out.”
“University students will mail out petitions and keep the subject
fresh in the media,” he said.
King received 10 sets of petitions from the UT Health Science Center
at San Antonio. UT-San Antonio student leaders will host a campuswide
event today to attract more signatures, she said.
King, who is overseeing the petition drive, will extend the deadline
until the end of next week. She said at least 600 signatures were
collected in her office Thursday, with more at her house. The UT
System enrolled more than 169,000 in fall 2002.
“It’s going so well, I don’t want to cut it short
since we have the momentum,” she said.
The bill has not been called to committee and does not have a date
set. She said UT-Austin students will be at the committee hearing
in full force. King has scheduled meetings with the Senate’s
education committee next week.
“We are focusing on education,” she said. “As soon
as the higher education committee is selected, we’ll meet with
them. We’re meeting with anyone and everyone.”
Students are on governing boards in 40 states. Florida has had a
student on their governing board for many years.
The Florida system has always had a student regent, known as a trustee.
Voters changed the governing body two years ago from regents to
trustees. A Constitutional amendment in 2002 created a board of
17 trustees for the statewide system. Today, 14 trustees are appointed
by the Gov. Jeb Bush and confirmed by the Senate.
One trustee is voted on from the state education commissioner. The
Advisory Council chair represents system faculty and the Florida
Student Association chair are also elected.
Student trustee Pablo Paez has not introduced legislation since
his elected term in May. Paez, a finance senior, serves as trustee
and student government president at the Florida Atlantic University
in Boca Raton, Fla. In the last vote for tuition increase, he was
the only trustee in opposition.
“Here in Florida, we have strong student representation, and
I don’t see why other states shouldn’t follow,” he
said.
A proposal removed veto power from university presidents on resolutions
passed by student governments, he said. Trustees now have the veto
power to strike down student resolutions.
Student government resolutions at UTA must be adopted by Student
Congress and the university president, who can veto, before reaching
the Board of Regents.
“I can just tell you that structured bodies that affect policy,
oversight or policy making of students need to have student representation,”
Paez said. “The main essence of a university is students —
we need to have them on those boards.”
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