Student Trustee's Role In Student Board Meeting

From your perspective, what is the role of a Student Trustee? Why does becoming a Trustee matter to you?

The role of a student trustee first and foremost is supply the rest of the Board of Trustees with the student experience. This allows the Board to make more informed decisions, as they receive the opinion of how a certain action will affect student experience overall. Due to this unique viewpoint, Student Trustees carry immense power, as the other members of the board will undoubtedly ask the Student Trustee for their thoughts on important votes. It is paramount that the Student Trustee understands that they do not serve on the Board to represent the student body, moreover, they serve on the Board to provide their background as a student

First, the decision whether or not to divest from fossil fuels. As was seen at the Board Meeting in October, a group of students protested in support of divestment. However, in relation to this issue, there undoubtedly needs to be some extensive research to see what financial impacts would come from divestment. If the impacts are little to none, we should begin to talk about divestment. But if the impacts will lead to financial strain, it may not be worth it. At the end of the day, the financial stability of UVM is paramount for the institution to continue to provide its quality graduates and research to the rest of the

Once students enter their third year at UVM the chances that they can obtain on-campus housing through the University is slim. This leads many students to find housing in downtown Burlington where they often face astronomically high rent, less than optimal apartment conditions, and conflicts with non-student neighbors. All of these effects have been made apparent through multiple presentations made to Student Government by student and non-student residents alike. It is clear that the desire for on campus housing similar to the Redstone Lofts is prevalent. If increasing numbers of students to continue to move off campus and crowd the downtown area, the relationship that UVM has with the greater city of Burlington could see strain in the coming years.

The third issue that will impact the UVM community in the next two years is to decide whether to upgrade Given and Dewey facilities. At the last Board meeting, the presentation that caught my attention the most was looking into the idea of rehabilitating the facilities for both the Larner College of Medicine and the Department of Psychological Science. The presentation showed photos of classrooms with exposed wiring and other structural problems, which are not optimal for spaces where world-class research is taking place. According to attachment eight of the meeting