February 12, 1999
MILLERSVILLE STUDENT NAMED TO BOARD OF GOVERNORS
Contact: Kevin Hensil, khensil@passhe.edu
The state Senate has confirmed Shelby A. Linton, a junior at Millersville University of Pennsylvania, to serve as one of three student members on the Board of Governors of the State System of Higher Education.
Linton is president of the Student Senate at Millersville University and a member of the Board of Student Government Presidents, which comprises the student leaders from each of the 14 state-owned universities.
An English education major, Linton expects to graduate in May 2000.
The 20-member Board of Governors has overall responsibility for planning and coordinating the development and operation of the State System. The governors establish 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 board members are equal participants in all of our discussions and actions,” said Board Chairman F. Eugene Dixon Jr. “The perspective they bring to the
Board on behalf of our more than 95,000 students is essential to our deliberations. Their input is invaluable.
“Serving students is why we exist,” Dixon added. “We need to listen to their opinions and to their ideas.”
Linton already has displayed her leadership at Millersville, and, as she assumes a seat on the Board of Governors, will contribute even more significantly to serving the needs of the State System’s entire student body, said Chancellor James H. McCormick.
Student members to the Board are selected from among the university student government presidents serving at the time a vacancy occurs. Once confirmed, they may serve on the Board until their graduation.
The other student members currently serving on the Board are Joy C. Leonard of Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP) and Zachary I. Cattell of West Chester University of Pennsylvania, who was confirmed along with Linton.
The other members of the Board in addition to Chairman Dixon of Lafayette Hill are Vice Chairs Kim Lyttle of Pittsburgh and R. Benjamin Wiley of Erie; and Syed R. Ali-Zaidi, Shippenville; Muriel Berman, Allentown; Rep. Jeffrey W. Coy, Shippensburg; Daniel P. Elby, York; Glenn Y. Forney, Bradenton, Fla.; Charles A. Gomulka, Pittsburgh; Secretary of Education Eugene W. Hickok Jr., Harrisburg; Sen. F. Joseph Loeper, Drexel Hill; Rocco A. Ortenzio, Lemoyne; Gov. Thomas J. Ridge, Harrisburg; Rep. Jere W. Schuler, Lampeter; Sen. Patrick J. Stapleton, Indiana; John K. Thornburgh, Pittsburgh; and Christine J. Toretti, Indiana.
Linton has been a member of Millersville University’s Student Senate since 1996. She has served on more than a dozen committees, including those dealing with academic outcomes and assessment and off-campus housing. She also has been a member of the Constitution Committee, the Student Services Board of Directors and the Student Senate Executive Board.
Prior to being elected Student Senate president last year, Linton served for a year as treasurer of the organization, which oversees a more than $1 million annual budget. As president she is an ex-officio member of all Senate committees, appoints special committees and their members, represents the student body at university events and is assistant vice chair of Student Services Inc.
“As a member of the Board, I will be most concerned with the more than 95,000 students who are enrolled in the State System of Higher Education,” Linton said. “I look forward to bringing the Board an honest, realistic view of the issues that face the students of today.”
Linton’s other campus activities include membership in the John Newman Association and Alpha Xi Delta sorority. She is a member of Millersville’s women’s soccer team, for which she has been recognized as a Pennsylvania State Athletic Association and USAA scholar athlete, and participates in intramural sports. She was a recipient last year of Lancaster County’s Outstanding Sorority Woman Scholarship.
The State System of Higher Education is the largest provider of higher education in the Commonwealth, offering more than 215 undergraduate degree and more than 100 graduate degree programs. The 14 universities that comprise the System enroll a combined 95,000 students. Nearly 350,000 State 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.