Sophomore Mike Hoeschele will be the next student-selected trustee to replace Luke Metaxas, pending confirmation at tomorrow’s full Board of Trustees meeting at the Penn Stater. He was selected by a student committee of at-large members and student government leaders led by Metaxas.

Hoeschele is a nuclear engineering major from Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He spent the 2016-2017 academic year as the chairman of the University Park Allocation Committee, the body that allocates the large majority of the former Student Activity Fee to student organizations on campus. Though he hasn’t been directly involved in student government, his UPAC position also gave Hoeschele a liaison role with UPUA and a non-voting seat on the Student Fee Board.

“I was looking for an opportunity to make a difference,” Hoeschele told Onward State in August, “and I saw things in UPAC that I wanted to see change for the students to benefit, so I’m excited to now be in a position to do that.”

Hoeschele will have an even greater opportunity to make a difference in the Penn State community in his new position on the Board of Trustees. The student-selected trustee seat was solidified in fall 2014 from controversial governance changes which allowed for a voting student trustee for the first time. Hoeschele will serve a two-year term.

Graduate student Allie Goldstein was appointed by the Pennsylvania governor to serve as a second voting student trustee alongside Metaxas, though it’s unclear if Governor Tom Wolf will continue this tradition of appointing a student now that the student-selected student trustee seat exists.

Congratulations to Hoeschele on his appointment. We look forward to his work and representation in the coming year.