East Tennessee State University is about to get a new student representative, and the candidates all have a voice they want to be heard.
Three candidates for the Student Trustee positon have been selected and will be reviewed by ETSU President Brian Noland for the final decision.
The candidates are Keyana Miller, Natania Paul and Seth Manning. They were selected from a pool of 26 applicants by a special committee of SGA members. The candidates introduced themselves to the SGA Senate during Tuesday’s meeting.
Miller currently serves as SGA President. She is an English and political science major and emphasized her desire to represent ETSU students.
“The idea of being student trustee, for me, is a way that I can be the student voice and the student representative in a different way—in a different aspect than SGA,” she said.
Paul is a member of the SGA Senate. She is a pre-medicine student majoring in chemistry. She listed her experience in different groups as being her reason for applying.
“In my time in Senate and in the different clubs I’m apart of, I’ve gotten to see the different needs that students have—not just on this campus but also at the VA campus,” she said.
Manning is a public health and political science major, and he is also in an accelerated master’s program. He formerly served as a student representative for the Tennessee Board of Regents.
“We have to cut across barriers,” he said. “We have to be able to speak for everyone, and I think I’m someone who can speak in that capacity.”
SGA Senate unanimously members voted to endorse the candidates during the meeting before sending the applications to Noland for the final decision.
The Student Trustee is the student representative of the ETSU Board of Trustees, though they are a non-voting member. The Student Trustee is expected to be announced in April after being approved by the Board of Trustees.
