Maryland Alpha Sig to serve on Board of Regents

[AlphaSigOU]

Willcher appointed by Maryland Governor to serve on Regents

For the third time in the Epsilon Delta (Maryland) Chapter an Alpha Sig has been appointed by the Governor of Maryland to serve on the University System of Maryland - Board of Regions. Kevin Oxendine, Maryland 2000 and J. Andrew Cantor, Maryland 2001 have also previously served on the Board of Regents.

Gov. Bob Ehrlich nominated university junior and Student Entertainment Events President Joel Willcher, Maryland 2003 to be the next student to serve on the Board of Regents — the first from this university in two years. The student regent, chosen from nominees from each University System of Maryland school, serves a one-year term and acts as the student representative on the board, which governs the system. He has the same voting power as other regents.

Ehrlich (R) submitted to the Senate a list of 230 nominees for appointments to state boards and commissions, including the regents board, on Friday. He named Willcher as his choice for student regent and also nominated former state Sen. Francis Kelly to the board.

Chancellor Brit Kirwan said he recommended Willcher to Ehrlich and praised him as an excellent student and knowledgeable of pressing issues. “He seemed to have a good grasp of the issues facing higher education ... and was also able to look at the larger public policy issues,” Kirwan said.

Willcher said he plans to visit each system university to talk to students before he sets goals for his term. He said he expects the fiscal situation, the loss of top faculty and the improvement of access and affordability to continue to be top issues.

He said he plans to take the months he has before his term, which begins July 1, to research and study the issues. Willcher said he hopes his position in SEE and other experiences he has had on the campus will give the board a strong view of student issues, including post game rioting. “I think the roles I have fulfilled at College Park will enable me to give good and productive insight ... If that issue is still on the front burner when my term begins, then that is something with which I would like to be involved,” Willcher said.

Kirwan said Willcher is “in the mold” of Andrew Canter, a 2003 university graduate and the last student regent from this university. “I thought [Canter] was a marvelous student regent and see many of the same characteristics,” Kirwan said.

Regents serve five-year terms, and should the Senate approve the recommended nominations, they will be effective July 1.

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Excerpts taken from “Diamondback Online” by Scott Dance, the University of Marylands Independent Student Newspaper .