Thomas C. Smith Named to OSU Board of Trustees

MORGAN COUNTY RESIDENT NAMED TO OHIO STATE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

     COLUMBUS -- Thomas C. Smith from Chesterhill in southern
Morgan County will attend his first meeting as a member of The
Ohio State University Board of Trustees on June 3.

     Gov. George V. Voinovich appointed Smith, who just completed
his first year of law school at Ohio State, to a two-year term as
a student member of the board.  He will succeed Hiawatha N.
Francisco Jr., whose term expired on May 13, and will serve on
the board's Student Affairs Committee.

     Smith, earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in political
science from the University of Akron where he served as a student
trustee from 1991 to 1993, and as student body president.

     "I feel truly honored to be selected for Ohio State where
student trustees are treated the same as the other board
members," Smith said.

     "From my undergraduate experience, I developed quite an
interest in higher education.  Once I came to Ohio State, I
wanted to continue that in some capacity.  There are few better
places for students to make a difference for other students than
serving as a member of the board."

     On the Akron Board of Trustees, Smith served on the 1992
presidential search committee, and the Educational Policy,
Finance and Fiscal Policy, Student Affairs, and Administrative
Services committees.

     "Student trustees have a special duty in that they have to
be responsible to gain the respect of other board members," Smith
said.  "Student trustees are only effective to the extent that
they can gain that respect."

     Smith said he would like to see the Ohio General Assembly
give student trustees the right to vote.
     "It's a little known fact that the majority of states that
have student trustees give them voting rights," he said.  "Ohio
needs to move into that category as well."

     Smith served this past year as a senator on Ohio State's
Student Bar Association.  At the University of Akron, Smith
earned a certificate of applied politics from the Ray C. Bliss
Institute of Applied Politics and received four scholarships.

     A member of the Morgan County Republican Executive
Committee, Smith served on the Chesterhill Village Council from
1989 to 1991.  He was an alternate delegate for President Bush at
the 1992 Republican National Convention.

     Smith is one of 28 Ohio State students from Morgan County.
                                #

Contact: Thomas C. Smith, (614) 554-5751 or 326-2339.


[Submitted by: REIDV  (reidv@ccgate.ucomm.ohio-state.edu)
               
Fri, 27 May 1994 14:04:59 -0500 (EST)]
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