After the elections for the student alternate Board of Trustees representative role ended on Wednesday, Feb. 21, it was announced that Ashley Buchanan won the position with a majority of the popular vote. The election, which began Tuesday, Feb. 20 at 9 a.m. and continued throughout the day until 6 p.m. Wednesday, featured Buchanan and two other Kean students, Jose Salas and Tiffany Osoria.
The role of a student alternate Board of Trustees representative is to serve as a student representative at the Kean University Board of Trustees, with responsibilities that range from attending all public meetings with organizations that stretch throughout the campus like Student Organization and the Graduate and Part Time Student Council. Two student representatives are appointed to these roles of leadership and are responsible for becoming aware of and involved in current issues and needs that the university has. Ultimately, they serve as a voice of the student body.
For the student leadership position, applicants were appointed via a voting system on the Cougar Link home page. Through the input of students voting for their desired candidate, Buchanan was selected as the winner with 132 overall votes being placed into the system for the three candidates.
Buchanan, a Graduate Intern for Greek Affairs who finished her undergraduate career at Kean University in 2017 with a degree in psychology, will now be responsible for being the student vote on the board of trustees while actively serving as an intermediary between the student body and the board. Additionally, the representative will meet with the vice president of student affairs and and the vice president of the Student Government should any issues present themselves. The graduate student will serve a two-year term to serve as an alternate member during her first year of service and as a voting member on the board of trustees during her second year.
Each candidate was unique and eager to participate in the leadership role and represent the student community of the school they called home. All participants of this election were in good standing, as eligibility for the consideration of the role required all undergraduate applicants to have maintained a 2.75 Grade Point Average (GPA) with 30 degree credits and a 3.0 GPA for all graduate students with at least 12 degree credits who applied for the position.
The position saw its official conception in the year 1986, as former Governor of New Jersey Thomas Kean Jr. signed off on a substantially important legislation that approved student representatives to vote on college and university boards of trustees across the state. Thanks to the former governor, it has been implemented into both the state law and Kean University policy that allots for two student representatives to serve on a board for the invocation of their own input.
The voice of the student body will be heard from the newly-appointed Student Alternate Board of Trustees Representative Buchanan, who will be ready to serve on the Board of Trustees, as well as become a connection between the student body and the board. More information on the position can be found on the official Kean Website. For questions, contact the email studentaffairs@kean.edu.
