WCSU Student Joins Board of Regents

Michael Fraser of Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) — have been elected to the Board of Regents for Higher Education, bringing the new board to full strength.

 The Board of Regents for Higher Education — the newly organized 96,000-student system that oversees the four state universities, the 12 community colleges and Charter Oak State College — will officially launch on January 1. The board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Student Alex Tettey Jr. of Manchester Community College was elected by students representing the 17 Board of Regents institutions to serve as chairman of the Student Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents for Higher Education, while Fraser was elected to serve as vice chair. By virtue of those positions, both Tettey and Fraser are voting members of the board.

Fraser is an undergraduate political science student with a minor in history at WCSU and lives in Brookfield with his wife, Marissa. Frasier has served on the WCSU student body for the past three years as SGA senator, SGA vice president of Internal Affairs, student representative to the university-wide Curriculum Committee and student representative to the WCSU Faculty Senate.  

The Board of Regents for Higher Education is comprised of 15 members and four ex-officio non-voting members. Nine appointments are made by Governor Dannel Malloy (including the selection of one of his appointees as chair), four are made by legislative leaders and two students are elected to the board.

 Malloy’s appointments include Chairman Lewis J. Robinson, Jr.; Naomi K. Cohen; Nicholas M. Donofrio; Merle W. Harris; Gary F. Holloway; René Lerer; Yvette Meléndez; Michael E. Pollard; and Zac Zeitlin. Legislative appointments are Richard J. Balducci, Lawrence DeNardis, Matt Fleury and Craig Lappen; elected student members are Tettey and Fraser.

 Ex-officio members include Glen Marshall, commissioner, Department of Labor; Jewel Mullen, commissioner, Department of Public Health; Stefan Pryor, commissioner, Department of Education; and Catherine Smith, commissioner, Department of Economic and Community Development.

For more information about the Board of Regents for Higher Education, visit http://www.ctregents.org/.