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The Student Assembly of the State University of New York (SUNYSA) is the university-wide student government for the 64 institutions of the State University of New York (SUNY). It is empowered by Article XVII of the policies of the SUNY Board of Trustees to represent student concerns, elect the student member of the Board, and to act as a communications network between campus student leaders.
Voting Rights on the Board of Trustees
In the 1970s, students pressed for voting representation on the governing board of SUNY colleges. In 1971, the State Legislature added five student voting members to Cornell's Board of Trustees. However, at that time, all members of a board must be over the age of 21 for a corporation to hold a liquor license, so to allow Cornell to retain its license, the legislature had to go back to amend NYS Alcoholic Beverage Control Law ยง 126(4) to require that half the board must be 21. In 1975, the legislature added a non-voting student seat to the boards of all SUNY units. Two Attorney General of the State of New York opinion letters[42] reduced the parliamentary rights of the student members to participate at meetings and indicated that they were not in fact Public Officers, and arguably subject to personal liability from lawsuits. In 1977, another statutory amendment made student members of SUNY councils and boards subject to the NYS Public Officers Law or NYS General Municipal Law and granted student representatives parliamentary powers of moving or seconding motions and of placing items on the agendas of the bodies. Finally, the legislature gave full voting rights to the student members in 1979, resulting in the students of all SUNY units having voting representatives, except for the NYS College of Environmental Science and Forestry. Finally, in 1986, the legislature gave the student representative of that college voting rights as well.