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New Graduate Student Trustee Wants Students of All Backgrounds to Feel Seen
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Recently-elected graduate student trustee intends to close the gap between graduate students and University administration.
The Cornell Daily Sun (https://cornellsun.com/tag/trustee/)
Recently-elected graduate student trustee intends to close the gap between graduate students and University administration.
Selam Woldai ’23 will begin her two-year term as student-elected trustee in the fall.
Cornell University is unique among academic institutions in having a life trustee position, filled by the eldest living descendant of Ezra Cornell, according to the University charter. Alonzo Cornell, Ezra Cornell’s son, was the university’s first life trustee. Ezra Cornell ’70 is the fifth and longest-serving life trustee.
Students slammed their palms and posters against the windows of the Friday afternoon Board of Trustees meeting in Myron Taylor Hall, chanting, “We won’t rest ’til you divest!”
Pollack spoke to alumni and trustee at the Trustee-Council Annual Meeting, covering a wide range of topics in her State of the University address.
Last semester, we had the opportunity to sit in on a meeting between President Pollack and a group of graduate and professional student leaders. These meetings are regular opportunities for students to communicate issues directly to senior administrators. Topics range anywhere from event management to support for student-parents to diversity and inclusion on campus. At the end of this meeting in particular, as students were packing up and preparing to leave, one of us casually mentioned, “At some point, we should probably talk about OrgSync too.” Everyone paused. The energy in the room changed.
After a week of Facebook-friending and platform-pushing, 10 candidates for Student Trustee filed into Willard Straight Hall for a debate over Cornell’s future, moderated by The Sun.
The Student Assembly discussed Students for Justice in Palestine, Slope Day’s headliner and student trustee and S.A. elections on Thursday’s meeting.
Cornell University’s Board of Trustees is unique in its inclusion of students as full voting members. Of our Ivy League peers, we are the only one to seat students on our Board even though many other student communities have argued for a similar position. Other academic institutions may allow students to elect a representative to serve on their Board, but Cornell is one of the few institutions to seat not one but two students. One student-elected trustee must be an undergraduate student while the other must be either a graduate or a professional student. Regardless of their academic status, both student-elected trustees represent the student community as a whole.
At Thursday’s Student Assembly meeting, potential changes to campaign policies surrounding elections for Student Assembly and student-elected trustees were tabled.