The Ohio State Board of Trustees will gain two new members when Gov. Bob Taft appoints one student member from five selected finalists and one non-student member on May 13.

Membership on the board is the most coveted appointment the governor makes, said David Payne, director of boards and commissions for the Office of the Governor. The governor makes appointments to over 200 boards and commissions, some of which pay over $100,000 per year. Members of the OSU Board of Trustees receive no financial compensation.

New legislation passed last December by the Ohio General Assembly will allow trustees of state universities to be reappointed after they have been off the board for four years.

Sen. Steve Stivers, R-Columbus, requested that the provision be inserted in the bill, but said in an e-mail that it was not intended to make the appointment of a specific former board member possible.

Payne is processing approximately 25 applications he has received. These will be evaluated based on the talents the current board members believe new members need to serve on the board in addition to the applicants’ qualifications, backgrounds and recommendations, said Mark Rickel, a spokesman for Gov. Taft’s office.

“The governor looks at all of them and may ask for additional information for three or four,” Payne said. “Mostly the governor knows these candidates and he makes the decision personally.”

The nine-year appointment replaces the seat left open by the retirement of Tami Longaberger, an OSU alumna who was appointed in 1996 and has served as chair of the board for the past year. She is also president and CEO of The Longaberger Company.

The new chair will be board member Daniel M. Slane, the current vice chair and another OSU alumnus who was appointed to the board in 1997. He is the founder and co-owner of The Slane Company, Ltd., which develops, owns and operates 88 shopping centers and commercial developments among other business ventures.

It is traditional for the non-student board member serving his or her last year to be elected chairman. Student members do not serve as chair.

The two student positions, one reserved for an undergraduate and one reserved for a graduate student, also differ from the non-student positions in that they are not allowed to vote and serve two-year, rather than nine-year, terms.

Emily Quick, a senior in marketing, currently serves as the undergraduate representative. The graduate seat, which will be replaced in 2006, is held by Chad Endsley, a second-year student at Moritz College of Law. The Undergraduate Student Government president facilitates the selection process for both positions, although he or she is not a voting member of the committee.

The applications of five finalists for Quick’s successor have been submitted to Payne’s office. Payne said that he and the outgoing and incoming board chairmen will now interview the candidates. OSU is the only public college or university where the finalists have a sit-down interview at this stage of the process – student appointments at other public institutions are decided based on written applications alone, he said.

The process for selecting the five finalists began with the distribution of an application during winter quarter, USG President Aftab Pureval said. The only requirements are that the candidate be an Ohio citizen, in good academic standing, and have a commitment to remain at OSU in order to complete the two-year term.

Fifty to 60 interested students attended one of four “meet and greet” receptions with the USG president, the two student board members, and an 11-member student trustee selection committee. The committee consists of faculty and staff representatives selected by Bill Hall, vice president for students affairs, and three representatives each from the council of graduate students, the interprofessional council and USG.

Thirty-five of those who attended receptions filled out applications consisting of seven essays, transcripts, and letters of recommendation. Twelve of those who submitted written applications were interviewed by the student trustee selection committee, which chose the final five. Those names are now on the governor’s desk, Pureval said. Neither the governor’s office nor the selection committee will reveal the finalists’ names.

The five student finalists “blow me away,” Pureval said.

“They’re incredibly insightful and articulate and I have tremendous confidence in them,” he said.