Antone's Nightclub
Students Won't Learn From Year Tenure as a UT Regent
RECEIVED Tue., June 21, 2005
Dear Editor,
Last week, Gov. Perry signed a bill to put a nonvoting student on the UT System Board of Regents. OK, let's review. The UT System is a $22 billion enterprise that must manage a $7 billion annual operating budget, 21 million acres of land, and almost 90,000 employees, to name only a few of its many facets. How many men or women under 25 sit on the board of directors of private corporations even a 10th that size? A student simply hasn't had time to learn enough to contribute anything substantial to running such an entity. Only in politics, where spending other people's money is a way of life, could such an idea even be presented, much less enacted.
Just to make the figurehead nature of the position more explicit, the student regent will have a one-year term, as opposed to the six-year term of a real regent – insuring that each ambitious politico-in-training will be booted quickly to make room for the next one.
A student regent has long been a goal of student politicians. It sounds great. It looks great on a résumé even better than president of student government. However, no one should be under the illusion that taxpayers or students will gain anything substantial from it.
Last week, Gov. Perry signed a bill to put a nonvoting student on the UT System Board of Regents. OK, let's review. The UT System is a $22 billion enterprise that must manage a $7 billion annual operating budget, 21 million acres of land, and almost 90,000 employees, to name only a few of its many facets. How many men or women under 25 sit on the board of directors of private corporations even a 10th that size? A student simply hasn't had time to learn enough to contribute anything substantial to running such an entity. Only in politics, where spending other people's money is a way of life, could such an idea even be presented, much less enacted.
Just to make the figurehead nature of the position more explicit, the student regent will have a one-year term, as opposed to the six-year term of a real regent – insuring that each ambitious politico-in-training will be booted quickly to make room for the next one.
A student regent has long been a goal of student politicians. It sounds great. It looks great on a résumé even better than president of student government. However, no one should be under the illusion that taxpayers or students will gain anything substantial from it.
Sincerely,
Alan McKendree
Alan McKendree