Saint Mary's Board of Trustees arrived on campus Wednesday afternoon and will hold several meetings that will conclude on Friday. The Board of Trustees visits four times each year meeting in October, February, April and June.
One unique aspect of the visits is the amount of student participation with the Board. Many students are allowed to actively work with the Board to better life at the College.
Senior Courtney Parry is the student trustee for the 2008-2009 school year and serves with the Board.
"Each year on senior is chosen to serve on the Board in this role," she said. "As such, I attend all Board meetings and have full voting privileges on the Board. I also must maintain confidentiality of Board sessions."
Parry also said that the Board typically meets "to discuss issues pertaining to the College. Board members are essentially fiduciaries of the College and seek to promote its best interests. The Board balances coordinating the College's short, mid-term, and long-term goals."
Like Parry, several other students are able to participate in Board meetings. Student body president, Mickey Gruscinski sits on the Student Life Committee and represents the Board of Governance (BOG).
"I am honored to interact with the Board as a member of Board of Governance," Gruscinski said. "As Student Body President, I am honored to sit on certain committees, and this happens to be one of them. I will be attending the Student Life Committee meeting. I will give feedback from the students to the Board members."
Many different organizations at the College have representatives attending meetings with the Board of Trustees.
Adriana Rodriguez, a junior at the College and President of the Student Diversity Board (SDB) attended the meetings.
"As President of the Student Diversity Board, I am a voting member of the Board of Trustees Enrollment Management Committee," she said. "This committee reviews any issues that influence or affect enrollment and retention at Saint Mary's College. The committee discusses these issues and determines courses of action or suggested ideas."
Maura Clughert, Residence Hall Association president is another participant in the Board of Trustees.
"I will be giving student input and opinions to the topics discussed at this meeting, especially how these topics affect the Residence Halls on Saint Mary's College campus," she said.
Sarah Falvey, student body vice president is also one of the students who sits on the board.
"I sit on the Education Committee of the Board of Trustees. Since I handle the academic side of student life, my role on this committee is to provide student insight," she said.
The Board will visit Saint Mary's again in April for more discussion.
