Header new120
Dec 09, 2011

Two Students Elected to Board of Regents

Students Alex Tettey, Jr. and Michael Fraser have been elected to the Board of Regents for Higher Education

Students Alex Tettey, Jr. of Manchester Community College (MCC) and Michael Fraser of Western Connecticut State University (WCSU) — have been elected to the Board of Regents for Higher Education, bringing the new board to full strength.

The Board of Regents for Higher Education — the newly organized 96,000-student system that oversees the four state universities, the 12 community colleges and Charter Oak State College — will officially launch on January 1. The board is scheduled to meet on Tuesday, Dec. 20.

Tettey was elected by students representing the 17 Board of Regents institutions to serve as chairman of the Student Advisory Committee to the Board of Regents for Higher Education, while Fraser was elected to serve as vice chair. By virtue of those positions, both Tettey and Fraser are voting members of the board.

Tettey, of East Hartford, is an undergraduate student pursuing a liberal arts and science degree at MCC. He has served as president of MCC’s Veterans’ Club, Political Union and sits on the college’s Legislative Advocacy Task Force. He currently serves as MCC’s Student Government Association (SGA) president, has worked as an intern to the Connecticut General Assembly and is the Connecticut state legislative director for Student Veterans of America. In addition, Tettey spent nine years in the United States Marine Corps and served in both Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom.

Fraser is an undergraduate political science student with a minor in history at WCSU and lives in Brookfield with his wife, Marissa. Frasier has served on the WCSU student body for the past three years as SGA senator, SGA vice president of Internal Affairs, student representative to the university-wide Curriculum Committee and student representative to the WCSU Faculty Senate.

The Board of Regents for Higher Education is comprised of 15 members and four ex-officio non-voting members. Nine appointments are made by Governor Dannel Malloy (including the selection of one of his appointees as chair), four are made by legislative leaders and two students are elected to the board.

Malloy’s appointments include Chairman Lewis J. Robinson, Jr.; Naomi K. Cohen; Nicholas M. Donofrio; Merle W. Harris; Gary F. Holloway; René Lerer; Yvette Meléndez; Michael E. Pollard; and Zac Zeitlin. Legislative appointments are Richard J. Balducci, Lawrence DeNardis, Matt Fleury and Craig Lappen; elected student members are Tettey and Fraser.

Ex-officio members include Glen Marshall, commissioner, Department of Labor; Jewel Mullen, commissioner, Department of Public Health; Stefan Pryor, commissioner, Department of Education; and Catherine Smith, commissioner, Department of Economic and Community Development.