April 22, 2002
Shippensburg Student Senate president named to Board of Governors
Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu
Thestate Senate has confirmed the president of Shippensburg University of Pennsylvania’s Student Senate to serve on the Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education’s Board of Governors.
Kara L. Wealand of Middletown will join student representatives from Edinboro and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania on the 20-member board. Wealand is a junior speech communications major at Shippensburg.
The Board of Governors has overall responsibility for planning and coordinating the development and operation of the State System. It establishes broad fiscal, personnel and educational policies under which the System universities operate. The three student members on the Board have full voting rights.
“Our student members are full participants in all of our discussions and policy-making decisions,” said Board Chairman Charles A. Gomulka. “The perspective they bring to the Board on behalf of our more than 98,000 students is essential to our ability to meet fully all of our students’ needs.”
Wealand has been a member of the Student Senate at Shippensburg for three years. She has served on numerous university committees, including the search committee for a new provost, the University Forum and the University Planning and Budget Committee. She also is a member of the Board of Student Government Presidents, which comprises the student leaders from each of the 14 State System universities.
Student members of the Board of Governors are selected from among the university student government presidents serving at the time a vacancy occurs. Once nominated and confirmed, they may serve on the Board until their graduation.
The governor appoints the majority of the other Board members, who also must be confirmed by the Senate. The Board also includes the governor or his designee, the secretary of education or his designee and four legislators.
Other members of the Board of Governors are Gomulka of Pittsburgh; Kim E. Lyttle of Pittsburgh and R. Benjamin Wiley of Erie, vice chairs; Syed R. Ali-Zaidi, Shippenville; Angela M. Ambrose, Edinboro University of Pennsylvania; Rep. Jeffrey W. Coy, Shippensburg; Daniel P. Elby, York; David P. Holveck, Malvern; Sen. Vincent J. Hughes, Philadelphia; Patricia K. Poprik, Langhorne; Sen. James J. Rhoades, Mahanoy City; Gov. Mark S. Schweiker, Harrisburg; David M. Sanko, Harrisburg; B. Michael Schaul, Mechanicsburg; Rep. Jere W. Schuler, Lampeter; John K. Thornburgh, Pittsburgh; Christine J. Toretti, Indiana; Amy M. Yozviak, West Chester University of Pennsylvania; and Secretary of Education Charles B. Zogby, Harrisburg;
With more than 98,600 students, the State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth. Its 14 universities offer more than 250 degree and certificate programs in more than 120 areas of study. More than 360,000 System alumni live and work in Pennsylvania.
The state-owned universities are Bloomsburg, California, Cheyney, Clarion, East Stroudsburg, Edinboro, Indiana, Kutztown, Lock Haven, Mansfield, Millersville, Shippensburg, Slippery Rock and West Chester Universities of Pennsylvania. The System also operates branch campuses in Clearfield, Kittanning, Oil City and Punxsutawney and several regional centers, including the Dixon University Center in Harrisburg and the University Center for Southwest Pennsylvania in Pittsburgh. The regional centers are part of the Educational Resources Group, which is responsible for coordinating statewide programming.