The UTM Advisory Board held its quarterly meeting on Friday, April 5 in the University Center, Room 229, to vote on four pending issues: the appointment of a student member to the advisory board for 2019-20 calendar year, a revised schedule for regular meetings, a modification to the student member appointment process, and five proposed amendments to its bylaws.
The amendments were simply clarifications to the bylaws, and each issue of the meeting was approved in unanimous decision by the board members during the meeting.
A major result of the meeting was a delegation of authority to the chancellor to appoint the student member to the board after a process of election coinciding with the SGA election cycle. The modification to the student member appointment process was proposed to ease the constraints of time, since the UT FOCUS Act requires the appointment be made by April 15 annually.
This authority also allows the chancellor to appoint a qualified student to join the board in the middle of a term if the current student is forced to leave the board before his or her appointment ends.
This early departure could result from many different circumstances, such as the student becoming academically ineligible or transferring from UTM.
After the Chancellor discussed and expressed his satisfaction with the efficiency of this process, he made a motion to appoint Lauren Carter, a freshman Political Science major, as the new student member of the board for 2019-20.
Carter will begin the position effective June 30. The final advisory board meeting for the current student member, Devin Majors, will be April 24.
Majors, a senior Political Science major and current SGA President, commented on Carter’s appointment to the board.
“Lauren Carter was one of my Pep students last year,” Majors said. “She has been learning a lot about how SGA works and how the university works. So, I think she is well-qualified to take on the role of the Student Representative after my term is done.”
Students interested in seeking the position of UTM Advisory Board Student Representative can get more information by visiting www.utm.edu/election.
For more information and complete access to bylaws, UT policies and agendas visit www.utm.edu/advisoryboard.
