Representation in a Parallel Universe

Of all the schools I applied to as a high school senior, the two that had me the most frothy at the mouth were Whitman College and Grinnell College. Actually, it is not uncommon to hear Whitman referred to by non-Westerners as the 'Grinnell of the West' as far as comparisons with similar schools go (though, ironically, Grinnell's namesake Josiah Grinnell was the one told to 'Go West, young man').

Now, in the search for how other student unions attained representation of some variety on their school's Board of Trustees (which I have universally found to be the highest decision-making authority at colleges and universities), I find myself comparing the two liberal arts schools again. This time, though, it's easier to see which one may have a better policy.

According to an article from 2001 in Grinnell's paper of record, the Scarlet & Black, Grinnellians obtained a student seat on the Board of Trustees at each of its quadrennial meetings:

. . .starting next October, the president of [Student Government Association (SGA)] will be allowed to sit in on board meetings at the chair's discretion. In February, Flammer asked if the SGA president could serve as a voting member of the board; last Friday, president-elect Paul Ford proposed that he be granted the same privileges as college president Russell Osgood at meetings. The board decided that the president could attend meetings, but would not cast a vote. Osgood does not attend executive sessions, and neither will the president of SGA.

The article goes on to reveal how students went about acquiring this essential representation:

Why, after years of student attempts to gain a voice on the board, did trustees agree now? Flammer attributes the decision to "persistence and respectful persuasion. I have no doubt in my mind that the reason these steps were taken is because we were persistent and we always acted respectfully."

There are many more examples of attempts to obtain this kind of representation, some of them not as successful as Grinnell's example. It would behoove our student leaders to peruse the evidence of both successful and unsuccessful methods as we work towards a similar objective at our fair college.

I could also ask the Senator Powers of the parallel universe (the one who chose Grinnell College three years ago) about how his system works, as well as why the hell he ended up in the middle of Iowa.