Student regent enjoys spot on board

by Michael Gendall

Monday, November 21, 2005 00:00

This is the seventh part of a series profiling members of the Board of Regents, the governing board for the University of Wisconsin System.

It could be argued Regent Christopher Semenas has a more difficult and challenging role than any of his fellow board members.

A UW-Parkside senior, Semenas currently holds the sole "student regent" position on the board and is therefore sometimes asked to represent the diverse needs and interests of roughly 160,000 UW students system-wide.

Additionally, while most regents serve seven-year terms, Semenas has just two years to acclimate himself to the job and grow comfortable interacting with colleagues old enough to be his parents — even his grandparents, in some cases.

"I think the fact that their term is so compact [and] the perception that they are there representing the voices of 160,000 students … is an enormous challenge for our student regents," UW System spokesperson Doug Bradley said. "I think Chris has done a nice job of getting [the regents] not only to like him but to respect him."

Semenas, who began his regent career this June, said it has been a "phenomenal experience" thus far and spoke highly of his peers on the board.

"I have such great thanks and such great appreciation for the help that they've shown me," Semenas, who is double majoring in English and History, said of his fellow regents. "They treat me as another regent would be treated and they're great, respectful people, and I enjoy it."

One of six regents to vote against the 6.9 percent system-wide tuition hike this July, Semenas said curbing the steady increase in tuition over the past ten years ranks at the top of his priority list.

"It was unfair for the Legislature, I felt, to give us the budget that they did," he said. "We need to make sure that any student that has the idea, the need, to go to college has the access and the ability to."

Semenas said he has firsthand knowledge of the situation facing many in Wisconsin, as he is the only member of his immediate family to go to college. He noted his family struggled to pay for his own education.

"I could not do that to other students and to myself," he said. "It's very important that we, as students, start speaking up on these issues."

In what is sometimes a politically hostile relationship between the UW System and the Wisconsin Legislature, Semenas urged UW students, their families and other Wisconsin citizens to inform their representatives of their desire for a well-funded public higher education system.

"I believe that our current president Kevin Reilly has done a phenomenal job in trying to reach out to our Legislature and I salute him," he said. "I think it's very, very important that students contact the legislators as well."

Citing the amount of idle time UW students spend on the Internet, Semenas encouraged his student peers to get involved and, if nothing else, tell their state legislators about the success they are having in the university.

"We can take five minutes out of our day to e-mail our local legislators and tell them about the success, the successful program that you may be in [at] whatever university you may be at," he said. "Students need to be speaking this — students need to be telling them this."

A second student regent position — reserved for a nontraditional student — has been passed by the state Legislature and is awaiting the anticipated approval of Gov. Jim Doyle.

"I'm very, very excited about it," Semenas said. "This passage will allow for students to start realizing the importance of stepping up and being involved on their campuses and also being involved statewide."