Former SGA President Derreck Whitson is one of three candidates for the student seat on the Tennessee Board of Regents (TBR) committee.
Last weekend each of TBR’s six universities and 13 community colleges sent a student voting delegate and a nominee to Nashville to select candidates for the TBR student representative.
Whitson was chosen from the four-year university nominees while one student was chosen from the 2-year institutions and one was selected as an at-large candidate.
The resumes of the three nominees will now go to Gov. Don Sundquist, who will make the final selection
If chosen, Whitson would be the only student on the 18-member board which is responsible for budget approvals, the overseeing of curricula and the designing of degree requirements among other duties.
Whitson says the student representative should be someone “who knows what students want and doesn’t mind saying `hey, what about this?'”
In addition, the TBR student representative is responsible for acting as a liaison between the board and the colleges and universities.
His duties would include informing the schools of policy changes and visiting the TBR campuses to ascertain the needs of each institution.
“I’m open minded and student-oriented,” he said. “You definately want someone who cares about the concerns of students.

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