The Division of Student Affairs’ recent decision to implement a Student Advisory Board will fast track communication between administration and students. But in order to function at its highest capacity, the board should look further than the nominations from student government and its application process, and instead invite students chosen at random to participate.

The board will serve as council for Senior Vice President and Dean of Student Affairs Rebecca Reed Kantrowitz and will commence its biweekly meetings next semester.

The Division of Student Affairs will consider nominations from Student Association as well as the Graduate Student Organization when selecting the 25 student representatives.

It will hold extra seats for outside students who sent in applications by Sunday’s deadline to be considered for a position. However, even an application process is still likely to draw the type of student who is already involved in campus issues.

These extra seats are not enough. To create a true representation of the students at Syracuse University, roughly half the board should consist of students who are invited and who then subsequently self-elect to participate.

There is no typical SU student, but the best way to create a board consisting of varying opinions and ideas is to reach further than the familiar faces of SA or GSO students. The Student Advisory Board is meant to provide insight and fresh perspective about student concerns. It would be in the best interest of the Division of Student Affairs and the entire student body to value the opinion of all students as much as those nominated by student government or who submitted an application. To do so, there should be an equal number of representatives who were nominated or who applied and students who were chosen at random.

The Student Advisory Board will help bridge the gap in communication between administrators and students, but Student Affairs take extra steps to hear a range of voices and re-evaluate its current criterion for building the board.