The CWU Board of Trustees (BOT) student representative position is set to be filled following the end of current student member Alex Harrington’s 2019-20 term.

Applications for the position ended April 24 with at least three students applying as of April 23 according to ASCWU Legislative Affairs.

The student who enters into this position will be a full voting member on all issues except matters related to hiring or discipline of personnel, professor contracts and employer and union contracts.

Director of Legislative Affairs Nancy Canales-Montiel said students weren’t as informed of the position opening as previous years, but ASCWU had been promoting it on social media.

“The hardest part is getting people to apply right now. The position is a big one, I think it’s probably arguably the biggest one and most important that we have on campus,” Canales-Montiel said. “The main thing we want to highlight is since President Gaudino announced his retirement next summer, the BOT member will have a very large say in who is the next university president. That’s a lot for one student.”

According to Canales-Montiel, there had only been three applications, but that number was from a week prior to April 23.

“The way it works is you would apply, and then the VP of Legislative Affairs …  will put our opinion on our top three and then we’ll send it to the governor. And then on their end they’ll take care of things,” Canales-Montiel said.

When asked about a protocol in place for if no one was accepted into the position, Canales-Montiel said it’s never happened before and, should someone be the only applicant, they would most likely automatically get the position. 

The current law for Washington (RCW 28B.35.100) doesn’t clearly define what the case would be should there be no applicants for the student BOT position. Since there were applications, CWU will be submitting the ones that have been turned in so that Gov. Jay Inslee will be able to choose the next in line.