It all began with an art exhibit.
In 2006, Marie Follayttar participated in a controversial art show called “Can’t Jail the Spirit,” that was shut down by the university. She went to a Student Senate meeting to get approval to be a student voice on a subsequent panel called “Controversy in the public university: who decides?”
“I saw a senate poster, walked in. That ended up being my first meeting. And three meetings later, I became a student senator,” she remembers.
At the urging of then Student Body President, Andy Bossie, Follayttar attended a Board of Trustees meeting in Machias. At the dinner afterwards, she talked with several board members and administrators until the dining hall closed.
“I was na’ve about the system, and the possibility even, of being a student voice,” she says.
But her first meeting with the board made her realize that she had the capability of speaking on behalf of USM students.
“I realized that what I had to say was of interest to people,” she says.
In January of 2007, Follayttar became the USM Student Representative to the Board of Trustees (BOT rep), a position that serves as an advocate for USM students at University of Maine Board of Trustee meetings.
By all accounts, Follayttar’s tenure as BOT rep has transformed the position. The job never stipulated communicating as much as she has with Lewiston-Auburn students. It never called for lobbying before the Maine Legislature. Both of which she has done, and views as integral to the position.
“I try to talk to every student I possibly can about an issue. A lot,” she says.
“Most people who know me know that I am always trying to understand their struggle or story. I don’t know if I always do as good a job as I could. I know sometimes I worry about how one person can really represent the diversity that is USM.”
But now, with less than two months left in her term as BOT rep, Follayttar is concerned by the fact that the search for her replacement is just getting underway.
“I do not have faith that a valid search is possible at this date,” she said in a letter to the BOT rep search committee last week.
“Valid is inclusive and well advertised. We are all too busy to create the right search to grant this extraordinary opportunity to the many students of USM,” she said.
Student Body President Ben Taylor, who is on the search committee, says that the student government got sidetracked with reworking the job description, as well as filling another position: the Student Trustee.
The Student Trustee represents all students for the University of Maine. USM’s nominee for the position is Student Senator Mako Bates.
“The student trustee position took some precedence because of it’s strategic role in the university,” he says.
“I feel that it’s a more important opportunity to have offered students. The student trustee doesn’t technically represent a school. To be able to offer that opportunity to even a small amount of students, we saw that as kind of to our benefit. It was offering a once in a lifetime opportunity,” he says.
Now that the SGA settled on Mako Bates as a Student Trustee, the search committee for BOT rep is moving forward, he says.
But the task of rewriting the job description has delayed the process further.
“The idea is that there won’t be that much change between what is happening now, with Marie Follayttar as the Board of Trustees representative, and what will happen. It was more to formalize the connections and make a lot clearer some of the responsibilities,” he said.
The most current version of the job description for the BOT rep was voted down in last Friday’s student senate meeting, until more constitutional changes can be made. The current version stipulates no responsibility to students of the Lewiston-Auburn college. It also excludes the length of term for the BOT rep and says that the student filling the post only needs to be taking one credit per semester; something that the senate wants to change to three credits.
Getting the job description nailed down is integral to making sure that the nominee knows what they are walking into, says Follayttar.
“There’s a lot that the student BOT rep will need to know potentially to walk into the conversation. And I really wished that I had more time to work with him or her. And right now, I don’t how a real search is going to occur. It’s a search that should have begun months ago,” she says.
Ben Taylor, and other members of the search committee for BOT rep, assert that there is still time to find a proper candidate.
“We were a little bit worried, but some of the senators have been talking to classmates, so we have an interested pool,” says Taylor.
“Really about 4 or 5 is my minimum target for candidates for the search. I think we definitely have the time to meet that.”
Another committee member, Commuter Senator Alison Parker, says that the committee is aware of the difficulty of completing the search in such a limited time frame.
“We’re are aware that the semester is coming to an end and we do know that its going to be a tight time frame,” she says.
“That’s why we’ve actually decided to do phone interviews rather than personal interviews because we do realize that people might go home after finals.”
Senator Brendan Morse says that the committee plans on extending the search past the end of the semester.
“We know people are really busy now. So we don’t just want to cram it in during finals week. We want to make sure people have plenty of time. We want to make sure every student at USM has an opportunity to apply,” he says.
But Follayttar doesn’t think that will be enough.
“The search [is happening] in an extremely limited amount of time, for a job that [lasts] two years that will represent USM undergrads during an extremely difficult time,” she says.
One of the biggest reasons that Follayttar wants to give an equal chance for all students to apply for the position is the learning experience that her time as BOT rep gave her.
“I’m hoping that the senate gives the opportunity for someone else to have the growth and the mentorship that is offered,” she says.
A mass e-mail is expected to be sent out to all students this Monday with an application for the position.