The Board of Trustees discuss adding a recreational field using fees from the new Rec Center and other topics at their monthly meeting. (Eric Wang/The Daily Campus)
The Undergraduate Student Government (USG) at the University of Connecticut is working to increase the amount of student representatives on the Board of Trustees from two to four, while maintaining the recent increase of student representation on the Student Life and Financial Affairs committees.
HB 7119 is a bill that would add one undergraduate and one graduate elected trustee to the board, Damon Reynolds, USG External Affairs Committee chairman, said.
Reynolds said legislation was passed through the Senate unanimously for the addition of two trustees, in exchange for pulling out of a decision made in 2017 that added USG representatives to the Student Life and Financial Affairs committees.
Reynolds said in his testimony in response to HB 7119 that adding student voices to the two committees was insufficient.
“The first student elected trustees were added in 1975, and since then the university system, ranging from Storrs to branch campuses and graduate areas, has grown significantly,” Reynolds said.
Adding more student representatives to the board as well as maintaining the seats in the committees would encourage diversity and student input, Reynolds said.
“When it comes to programming, new projects, tuition hikes and increased enrollment and growth over the past forty years, we believe that complex decisions and critical actions taken at [UConn] require greater student perspective than what is currently offered now,” Reynolds said.
The bill is currently awaiting consideration by the Connecticut House, Reynolds said. If it passed, it will go to the Senate and Gov. Lamont for their consideration.
Ashley Anglisano is a staff writer for The Daily Campus. She can be reached by email at ashley.anglisano@uconn.edu.