By Sebastian Moronta, SGA Correspondent
The UMass system, made up of five campus’ across Massachusetts, is overseen by a board of trustees who make macro-level decisions for all of the universities in the system. This board has five student trustees, one for each campus, and UMass Dartmouth political science major Sam Reid represents ours.
Reid is in her third and final year at UMass, serving two years as both senator and president of the Class of 2019 before transitioning into her current role. She appreciates the experience, as the title of student trustee bears some imposing responsibility. As the trustee for this campus, she represents all undergraduate and graduate students, including the Law school.
While there are five total student trustees for the UMass system, each year only two of the five get a vote on the board, so trustees often represent students from other campus’ in their decision making as well.
This year, Dartmouth does not have a vote, we had one last year, and we have a fifty-percent chance of getting it again next year.
Sam may not have a vote this year, but she keeps busy with her work in committees like the Committee on Academic and Student Affairs, which deals with the curriculum, majors/programs offered by the university, and tenure. She also serves on the Advancement Committee, which looks to ensure a bright future for the UMass system.
When Sam is away from the high-level meetings, the student trustee is working on constituency issues here at home. Just recently, after she found out that the campus had no formal celebration of their service, Reid worked with other members of student government to give Veteran’s and active service members free meal vouchers for Veteran’s Day. She’s taken the steps to ensure that Veteran’s from now on will get meal vouchers as well as a formal breakfast to thank them for their service on Veteran’s day in the future.
At present, Sam is most passionate about bringing legal services to students in need of it. Other schools in the UMass system, like Amherst, have a fully staffed legal services center where students can get valuable counsel on anything from immigration to patent law. Sam has drawn up a proposal to institute a similar center here on campus.
She’s also been working to bring the Justice Bridged program to the Dartmouth campus, which offers students the opportunity to get one-time free legal counsel from UMass Alumni now working as qualified attorneys.
It also presents the opportunity to receive further legal counsel at an affordable rate, if so desired.
Coming up on April 4, from 5-7 p.m. at the UMass Club in Boston, Sam will be attending the Impact Reception. It’s an event where school administrators, students, and state legislators are invited to gather and discuss the positive influence the UMass system has on the state of Massachusetts.
It’s a great opportunity to get a word in with important figures and talk about the campus, and Sam hopes more UMass students will join her. As your student trustee, Sam urges anyone in her constituency to reach out with any concerns or comments, as she’d love to hear from you at sreid2@umassd.edu.