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Show There is a pressing need for a fully matriculated student to be included on every college and university's Institutional Council. Institutional Councils function with the State Board of Higher Education and the schools. They act as a liason between the schools and their outside communities. Jobs of Institutional Councils include planning, raising funds, consulting alumni and choosing recipients of honorary degrees. The University's Institutional Council now includes an attorney's wife, two bankers, three attorneys, a physician, an investor, a retired labor leader and a retired businessman. A University administrator acts as an ex-officio member. The people on these councils are people who have made their positions in life. They're established. They have no way of knowing what a student thinks, does, plans and wants. Their only sources of information are the Reader's Digest, downtown news comment about student unrest and student involvement with the community and the occasional visits to student functions. The council's members are University graduates and patrons. But, they aren't students. Students attend classes, listen to guest speakers, drink coffee in the Huddle and live in the dorms or commute daily. But, they don't sit on the council that determines what position will be given their school, their community. They don't have a chance to decide who gets an honorary degree from their school the school they attend and support. Rep. Mike Dmitrich, D-Carbon, introduced a bill in the house which would require the inclusion of at least one fully matriculated student on each institutional council in the state. It took almost three weeks to get the bill passed in the house. The bill is now waiting to be sifted by the Senate's powerful sifting committee, and with 17 days left, passage is questionable. The Senate must realize that times have changed and that students need, want and qualify for a voice on the council which links their school with the community. Hope Seraote shifts eight gesas |