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March 28, 2024

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Spring Housing Guide

Student trustees gather at BGSU

University student trustee Matt Clever thought he’d be spending his weekend “pulling teeth” to get fellow student trustees from across the state to start some good discussions.

He was wrong. In fact, some conversations at this weekend’s student trustee conference on campus had to be cut short to get through it all.

“I think everything went 10 times better than I could have hoped for,” he said. “A lot of friendships were made this weekend.”

Clever and graduate student Korine Steinke — BGSU student trustees on the University’s Board of Trustees — hosted 18 other student trustees from 11 different universities in Ohio on campus this weekend during the first conference of its kind. Like regular trustees the students are appointed by the governor, but all serve two-year terms.

Steinke was also blown away by how things turned out.

“I was expecting a good conference but this gathering has exceeded my expectations,” she said. “Thinking back to the presidential election, you hear about all the apathy [among young voters] but I look at those 20 students that are in that room and they’re just bursting at the seams to make a difference.”

The students talked candidly over the weekend about the difficulties of defining their role, their level of access to board executive sessions, the pros and cons of voting rights and set the groundwork for a summer training session for new student trustees in the state.

But the bulk of the talking surrounded an issue that Clever noted was the most pressing — a lack of funding for higher education.

“If there’s any message I want you guys to get out of today, it’s we can make a difference in this budget cycle,” he said during a roundtable discussion Saturday. “This whole thing is about action, not just meetings. This is crunch time budget-wise and we need to do everything we can to help out our universities.”

Jim Tuschman, a member of the Ohio Board of Regents, and Larry Weiss, director of University Relations and Governmental Affairs at BGSU, spoke with the student trustees, painting a picture of the tough financial times for higher education in the state and offering a challenge to make their voices heard in Columbus.

“There’s $50 billion in the next two years going to somebody. Why not make our voices heard and get our share, or what we think is our fair share?” Weiss said. “We just cannot afford to sit silent on the sidelines and take whatever they give us.”

But with his challenge, Weiss warned of the need for a consistent message — no matter what university they attend. Currently Weiss, who travels to Columbus at least once a week, has been lobbying at the statehouse for a flat budget, or zero dollars in cuts or increases compared with what the University received from the state last year.

“I think it’s extremely important, vital, that we start to make one voice,” he said. “We must show them that they’re not going to be able to pit the universities against each other. I think you can have more power and impact than you think you can. I think your voice can be extremely powerful if you do it with oneness.”

Joining other student trustees statewide in this fight just didn’t seem necessary before this weekend, said Kristopher Keating, a student trustee from the University of Toledo.

“Coming here I had no clue that there was a need to be united,” he said. “But now that I am here I see there really is a need for uniting. We can’t do this alone.”

Tobias Brown, a student trustee from Central State University echoes these views.

“I think vocal constituency and bringing everybody together is key,” he said. “We need to go down there and show them who we are and be convincing.”

During the conference, the group began planning a trip to the statehouse and discussed attending the Higher Education Subcommittee hearings in the Ohio House of Representatives early next month.

The student trustees also accepted Weiss’ challenge to get the parents of students at their respective universities aware of the crisis and involved in the lobbying effort.

Editor’s Note: For more information on how you can make your voice heard in Columbus visit: http://falconalumni.bgsu.edu/alumni/. Click on the “Advocate for BGSU” link.

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