There is currently no faculty trustee on the Board of Trustees for the California State University system.

According to the CSU website, the Board of Trustees “adopts rules, regulations, and policies” governing the CSU system. The board also creates and implements rules and programs for the CSU.

San Diego State’s Senate chair Bill Eadie said only one faculty member from the entire system holds the role of faculty trustee.

The Academic Senate of the CSU is required by state law to hold nominations, review applications and choose two individuals to send to the governor, who then appoints a candidate for the positions. Humboldt State University’s Bernadette Cheyne and CSU, Northridge’s Stephen Stepanek were recently nominated by the Senate.

The board of trustees has met twice without a faculty trustee in the six months since the governor received the names of the candidates, Eadie said.

“Since students and faculty are the university’s key constituencies, this means that one of those constituencies has been excluded from vital decisions affecting all of the CSUs,” SDSU faculty representative for the CSU Academic Senate Cezar Ornatowski said.

Candidates in the past have been a part of system-wide governance and have the knowledge and skills to work with other trustees, Eadie said.

The absence of a faculty trustee has concerned employees of the CSU system because faculty are not given the voice they deserve.

“Ultimately the faculty trustee is somebody who is tuned in with actual issues that we have on campus as well as research,” Vice Chair of SDSU University Senate Ghada Osman said. “Without a faculty trustee the Board of Trustees doesn’t get a perspective of the inside workings of the campus.”