As the current student representative on the Florida Board of Governors, I feel compelled to set the record straight regarding student representation on the board.
Last week, students at UF were purposefully confused by a biased letter to the editor written by Student Body President Anthony Reynolds to cover up his support of a bill that takes power away from Florida students.
First, let me frame this discussion by contextualizing the importance of student representation on the board.
The student representative is one of two representative positions on the board and represents more than 320,000 students in the state of Florida. The second is the faculty representative, who is elected by the Advisory Council of Faculty Senates.
Just as the faculty representative advocates for faculty-related issues such as tenure, the student representative represents us in matters such as tuition rates, the implementation of new or increased fees and block tuition.
The question at hand now is this: Should we eliminate the democratic process of election currently in place and allow Gov. Rick Scott to appoint our sole voice on a board that determines our tuition?
President Reynolds and the Unite Party say yes — give it to the governor.
What leads your esteemed Student Body president and your dominating political party to believe that Gov. Scott is a better judge of a student leader than student leaders themselves?
I wish I knew, but unfortunately, what I have seen in my role on the board and in politics this past year is that logic and common sense are rarely what prevail.
Tj Villamil's statements in comments on the Alligator's website, "FSA is controlled by smaller schools because of their number (9 v. 4)" and "The president of New College ... should never be representing us on the BoG," are great examples of an argument that lacks common sense.
First of all, 9 + 4 = 13. There are only 11 state universities in Florida.
Secondly, I find it ridiculous that he believes a student at New College, Florida's honors college, is less worthy than a student at UF to represent students on the Board of Governors. I would like to point out that common sense would say that since my academic focus is in higher education policy and I have been involved in the process for two years, I would be the perfect candidate to represent students in this capacity.
Student representation should not be about what school you are from but about your ability to understand the diverse issues facing students and advocate on their behalf.
The FSA is not "controlled by smaller schools." When students at UF were faced with the threat of block tuition, the FSA (small schools included) banded together to block the proposal and advocate for students at UF. The chairman at the time was the Student Body president from Florida A&M University.
As students, we are the most underrepresented interest in Tallahassee, and for us to segregate ourselves based on enrollment numbers does not strike me as sensible.
As someone who spends a great deal of time at every one of our state's universities, I can tell you that as students, we are not so different.
We all want to see increased appropriations for higher education, we all want to see lower tuition and we all want to see Bright Futures saved. But by dividing ourselves, we inhibit our ability to fight for what is important to us.
Two weeks ago, student leaders from every university in the state of Florida argued in front of the Senate Higher Education committee about the Board of Governors bill. Afterward, Sen. Steve Oelrich, who is the chairman of the committee, said he was thoroughly confused by the dueling student opinions.
How can we effect any change in the legislative process if we confuse the Florida Senate by arguing about student government personality conflicts? No wonder Sen. Oelrich was confused.
Asking the governor to select our voice on the board is not common sense.
Dividing ourselves as students based on the enrollment numbers at our university is not common sense.
Tampering with the constitution of the state of Florida at the cost of $70,000 to Florida's taxpayers — solely to appease the ego of two Student Body presidents — is not common sense.
To the students at UF, I suggest that your vote in the UF SG elections reflects common sense.
Alex Cornillie has shown that common sense.
Michael Long is the chairman of the Florida Student Association and Student Body president of New College of Florida.
