Editorials, Opinions

Our View: Ex-officio Board members should have a voice

Some members of the Cal State University Board of Trustees may soon not have to a make a trip to the CSU Chancellor’s Office every other month to have a voice at the Board’s meetings.

Assembly Bill 46 passed last week in committee with a vote of 9 to 3 to allow ex-officio members of the Board – including the governor, lieutenant governor, assembly speaker and superintendent of public instruction – to send delegates to the meetings to vote in their name. Before the bill, if ex-officio members couldn’t attend the meeting, their vote was not counted.

 

With the bill’s passage, the major players on the Board will still have a voice on CSU matters, regardless of their presence at the meetings.
The Daily 49er editorial board welcomes this change to the Board meetings. The ex-officio members sit next to Chancellor Timothy P. White, and their voices are important for California’s higher education.

The ex-officio members are also busy people and must attend other meetings across the state. Having a delegate, on occasion, to vote in their place is reasonable.

The new bill also grants absentee voting for student trustees. There are two student trustees that sit on the Board, and they each serve staggered two-year terms. The student trustees are allowed to vote only in their second year.

Before, if the senior student trustee was unable to attend the Board meeting, no student trustee would be able to vote. In other words, the student voice would not be heard.

The new bill, however, allows for the junior student trustee to vote in place of the other, which is really just common sense.

Overall, this bill just seems to clean up minor difficulties for the Board. It tightens up the loose ends and will make the meetings run more smoothly.

One concern we have, however, is the possibility that the ex-officio members may take advantage of the potential new rules.
In the past, we would see Gov. Jerry Brown at most meetings.

Now, because he technically doesn’t have to attend Board meetings to have a voice, other meetings and issues may take priority.
While it is important for Brown and others to have a voice, it is also important for them to show face as well. Their presence and input at meetings can go further than just a single vote.
 

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