The Concordian

Media Credit: Chris Slater [Click to enlarge]

You could call him the “Elder Statesman” of the Student Government Association. Kearns has been a fixture of the SGA since arriving to Concord in 2006.

“I came to Concord not knowing anybody,” Kearns said. “I really want to be involved in politics when I get older; political science is my major. And, the Student Government Association was the way to become involved with campus politics. I met a lot of people shortly thereafter who encouraged me to join SGA, so I did.”

Kearns started out as an organizational representative and has been as high up the “political ladder” as Vice President. In between, he has also been the Business Manager twice, a Senator, and he has chaired seemingly every committee the SGA has to offer.

Presently, Kearns is the SGA’s student representative to Concord’s Board of Governors.

“Board of Governors is the governing board of the university,” Kearns said. “Essentially, the highest officer at the University is the President. The President enforces the policies that the Board sets.”

Kearns noted that the Board of Governors is an example of a “lay board” concept, in which average citizens, appointed by West Virginia Governor Joe Manchin, help guide and direct state institutions towards their goals.

“Now, West Virginia, like many states, has a student and faculty representative; but like almost no other state, has a staff representative as well,” Kearns said. “So, the element there - and the fundamental principle there - is you want every constituency group, the faculty, staff, and students to have a say in the direction of their institution. And, I serve as the student representative.”

The Board of Governors usually meets a few times during the summer and each month during the academic year; however, the Board has not yet met since Kearns was elected to the position during the spring semester.

The reason, Kearns said, was due to himself and four other members of the Board of Governors having recently been appointed.

“The law allows them to serve until the Governor replaces [members whose terms expire],” Kearns said. “Instead of replacing them on a staggered basis, the Governor used his prerogative and replaced them all at once. Now, these individuals included the Chairman of the Board, as well as the Secretary of the Board. Counting those four members, plus myself; five members of the Board were brand new.”

The Board of Governors will meet Nov. 16, 2009. There are several action items of the Board.

“They include the approval of the budget throughout the university for next fiscal year,” Kearns said. “They include approving the military accommodation policy; the call-up policy for faculty, staff, and students. As well as approval of the faculty handbook. Also, the institutional compact, with the State of West Virginia Higher Education Policy Commission.”

“I think those are the major ones. There’s some minor things, like renaming the locker room for a donor.”

One of the biggest action items that the Board of Governors will be voting on is the new Military Accommodation Policy.

“When the Iraq War sort of got into its main swing - 2006, 2007 - we saw the need for a policy that would allow students more options. Not only students, but faculty and staff,” Kearns said. “The Faculty Handbook now states, that should a student be activated - called up - that they have to withdraw from the university, get their tuition back, and basically we send them on their way and hope they do well.”

The new policy allows students to either withdraw or get an “Incomplete” in their classes, which would allow them to be made up in the future. The policy will also protect faculty and staff, in that it will allow them to return to their positions after they return from service.

“It’s been several years in the making,” Kearns said. “The Board has had this since, when Akeya [Carter-Bozman, last year’s student representative] was on the Board, when they decided not to vote on it at the time and they delayed it. And, it was supposed to be voted on in September and it was not. I raised my objections to the Chairman of the Board and the President of the University graciously agreed to extend everything that’s within this policy in the interim.”

The President of the University, Dr. Gregory Aloia, will follow this policy until it is passed by the Board of Governors. Kearns expects the policy to pass overwhelmingly.

“If the new Board members are uncomfortable voting on it, I’ll ask them to abstain from the vote,” Kearns said. “I think we need this policy. I think they have more than enough time to read over it.”

Kearns gave a lot of credit to former SGA Presidents Jessica Cook, Wes Prince, and Sean Noland, and more of the “older generation” of the SGA, as he put it.

Kearns has several things he wants to accomplish this year as Board of Governors representative.

“I ran on a multi-faceted platform of - one, doing a comprehensive review of the Board policies, making the more student-friendly; secondly, getting the Board more in-touch with the students on campus,” Kearns said. “And, most importantly, being frank and honest with the Board.”

Kearns noted the combative nature that the students and the Board of Governors have had over the years. He said that after talking to them, he realized that they did not have the opportunity to see where students are coming from.

“So, when you explain the situation the them, they’re really sympathetic,” Kearns said. “They’re really pro-student, most of them are. They want to help us, we just need to give them the resources to do that.”

A major issue the Board of Governors representative has undertaken each year is to chair the SGA’s Tuition and Fees committee. The committee’s goal is to work towards making sure tuition increases remain as low as possible.

Kearns said that with the state of the economy, he realizes that a zero-percent increase is out of the question.

“So, we want the most ‘bang for our buck,’” “We don’t want to have, for example, a 2 percent increase if it’s going to mean a 10 percent increase for the next couple of years. Now, we’re discussing if we’re going to have tuition increases, what can we really get for those - what are the tangible benefits?”

The committee does not have any set members, and Kearns said he will ask certain students to attend at various points throughout the academic year. Most of the Executive Board of the SGA is on the committee, as well as several other students.

“So, it’s a broad committee,” Kearns said. “It’s got a lot of experience, it’s got a lot of insight, I think.”

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