Luetkemeyer takes oath of office as 'student curator'

MU law student will represent UM system students on governing board.

By Elliot Njus

Published Aug. 21, 2007

MU graduate student and former MSA President Tony Luetkemeyer took office as the "student curator" on the UM System Board of Curators at the board's annual retreat in July.

Gov. Matt Blunt appointed Luetkemeyer as the student representative to the Board of Curators, the governing board of the UM system. Luetkemeyer said he will hold the position for the standard two years, although he is technically filling the remainder of a previous student representative's term.

Luetkemeyer was appointed to complete previous student representative Maria Kerford's term, according to a UM system news release dated July 26. When student representative and UM-Kansas City student Shawn Gebhardt graduated in June 2005 UM-St. Louis student Maria Kerford held the vacated position for two years.

The term of a student representative expires on Jan. 1 of even numbered years per Missouri state law, but Luetkemeyer said he has been assured by the governer's office that his term will not be abbreviated.

Luetkemeyer was sworn in as the student representative to the board and attended his first meetings in the position at the Board of Curators' retreat and regular board meeting held July 26 and 27 in Marceline, Mo.

"I'm very pleased to have Tony Luetkemeyer as our new student representative," Board of Curators Chairman Don Walsworth said. "He's a very talented young man."

Luetkemeyer said the board members gave him a warm welcome, and he looks forward to working with them.

"All of the curators were very friendly and very collegial toward me," he said. "They were a very professional, very cohesive group."

Luetkemeyer received bachelor's degrees in history and political science from MU in May 2006. He is beginning his second year in the MU School of Law.

From February 2005 to February 2006, Luetkemeyer served as president of the Missouri Students Association. He served as chairman for the Intercampus Student Council, an organization made up of representatives from each UM system campus. The student representative is a member of the ISC, and Luetkemeyer said he will use the organization as a "sounding board" to discuss the various problems facing the system campuses.

Luetkemeyer said he also intends to travel to the four UM system campuses and hopes to bring a voting member of the Board of Curators with him to student government meetings at each.

"I talked to (Curator) David Wasinger, and he was very excited and receptive about the possibility," he said.

The student representative is a non-voting member of the board, but before Luetkemeyer was appointed, the curators voted to allow the student representative to vote in the selection of a new UM system president.

"I'm looking forward to actually casting a vote to help choose the new UM system president," Luetkemeyer said.

He said he would continue to advocate for legislation allowing the student representative to vote with the rest of the board and would testify before the General Assembly to promote such a bill. State law requires that student representatives be chosen from one of the four UM system campuses — MU, UM-Rolla, UM-Kansas City and UM-St. Louis — in rotation.

Applications are reviewed by ISC, which selects the top candidates to interview for the position. After the interviews, ISC submits three candidates to the governor, who makes a final selection. The Missouri Senate must confirm the appointment before the student representative takes office.