Into The Fold: Student Has Voting Seat On Uniserv Board

With a firm grip on the present and an eye on the future, the Rock Valley United Teachers Board has opened the door for student educators to be directly involved in decisionmaking.

RVUT has become the first UniServ to give Student WEA members a voting seat on its board of directors.

It’s an arrangement that benefits both the veteran educators and members of the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater Student WEA chapter.

The Rock Valley United Teachers Board has amended its Constitution to allow the Student WEA to occupy a voting seat on the board. Two students can sit on the board and share one vote. This year, the representatives are Nicki Van Aacken, center, president of the UW-Whitewater Student WEA chapter, and Becka Boelkow (second from right). Whitewater teachers (left to right) Bonnie Vander Meulen and Patsy Wanless and support staff member Bonnie Stanley make the students feel welcome at RVUT and, here, at Whitewater’s Lincoln Elementary School.

“It’s a good sharing opportunity and learning opportunity for all of us,” said Bonnie Vander Meulen, a guidance counselor at Whitewater’s Lincoln School and vice president of RVUT. “It gives us a greater respect for the student organization and students in general, and out of that grows a mutual respect.”

It also keeps RVUT members up to date on what is happening in the Education Department at UW-Whitewater, and interjects the perspective of another young person.

For the students, involvement on the RVUT Board provides insight into another aspect of the profession and gets them more involved in union activities.

It also gives students some added political clout. The Student WEA, for example, is supporting a resolution at this spring’s WEAC Representative Assembly urging members not to cut out student teaching programs when they are involved in job actions. UW-White-water Student WEA President Nicki Van Aacken, who is the main student rep to RVUT, said being able to present the student perspective on the board has helped active teachers gain a better understanding of the students’ position.

At the same time, she said, students learn more about education politics, the union’s role in education, and the collective bargaining process, areas that are not covered in the UW-Whitewater curriculum.

“It’s a chance for us to get information and advice from teachers already in the field,” she said.

Posted April 11, 2000