By Kyeland Jackson —

Fixing an error in legislation, Governor Matt Bevin signed a bill allowing U of L constituencies to vote on the position of board of trustees chair. The Faculty Senate, Staff Senate and Student Government Association representatives could not vote on the position last year, a violation of board policy.

“The Redbook clearly states all members of the board have equal voting rights on all matters coming before the board,” President James Ramsey said in a statement.

“We applaud the Governor and General Assembly…Our administration’s goal is to make this university community more inclusive, and to recognize constituency representatives have full rights as trustees is an important step in that direction.”

Constituency members have gathered opinions from their departments after a vote of no-confidence was scheduled for April 20. The vote was canceled because there was not an accurate racial representation on the board. Bevin is tasked to appoint the members necessary to fix this.

Pamela Feldhoff, representative of the Faculty Senate, was told a majority of departments were in favor of her voting for no-confidence during a senate meeting. SGA, during their last meeting, decided to hire an outside firm to gauge student opinion on Ramsey from now until January. The decision was made after a ULink poll on the vote received responses from only three percent of the student population. Outgoing SGA President Victoria Allen told the group that student opinions matter and a vote of no-confidence should not be taken lightly.

The next board of trustees meeting is scheduled for June 21. If racial representation is still not made by then, discussion on a vote of no-confidence may be pushed back again.