Kendyl Seals | Reporter
Forrest Allard, the new student representative on Tech’s board of trustees, said he wants to be the student’s voice among the university’s high-ranking decision makers.
“What I’m planning on doing as student trustee is focusing more on listening. I want to ensure that I’m not just meeting with these people four times a year, and I am able to express what I am seeing, and that when the board is meeting and voting everyone already knows what the opinion of the students is,” Allard said.
Allard is a junior majoring in accounting from Monterey, Tennessee, and plans to teach economics at Tech. His pursuit for the position on the board stems from his desire to be the voice of the students, he said.
The board is the governing body of Tech and consists of 10 members including eight appointed by the governor, one faculty representative and a student. The position of student representative is a non-voting position.
Trustees appointed during the quarterly trustee meeting on March 22. He was one of three SGA nominees. Sawyer Hall and Micayla Holton also applied for the position and addressed the board about why they believe they deserved the position.
Hall, a freshman senator in SGA, said he believes he embodies the average Tech student and would represent students well, even though he had not been at Tech very long.
Holton is pursuing her graduate degree in secondary education and said she wants to make a positive difference for the students. Holton ran for the board position last year.
Trustee Barbara Fleming nominated Allard.
“Both other nominees were equally qualified,” Allard said.
Allard is only the second student selected in the board’s history. He succeeds Nick Russel.
