And with two spots on the board up for grabs in two weeks, she’s even more uncertain about who to vote for.

“I’ve been looking into (who’s running for the board) on my own but nobody has said anything about it around here,” she said. “I wish that there were some sort of materials distributed on campus about who they are.”

Many MSU students are unsure of who’s on the board and who to vote for on Election Day. In addition, some students don’t know what goes on in the monthly board meetings.

Trustee Melanie Foster said awareness of the board is crucial because of the decisions it’s in charge of – tuition, budget, faculty appointments and the hiring of the president.

“I wouldn’t just say student awareness, I’d make it broader and say public awareness,” Foster said. “This always becomes more profound when you’re in an election year.”

Foster and fellow trustee Don Nugent agreed the board likes opportunities to speak with student organizations and attend events on campus. Nugent said accepting invitations from student groups is a great way to be more visible to the average MSU student.

“There are several board members that make a conscious effort to try to fulfill as many of the invitations as they can,” Nugent said. “Obviously, you can’t get to them all. But it is important that we have a good relationship between the students and the board.”

While the Board of Trustees election is statewide, Democratic candidate Dianne Byrum said using a variety of advertising near MSU is essential to gaining support. Byrum said she’s done several media interviews and spoke at the Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., rally on campus earlier this month. Although she’s worked to increase her recognition on campus, she said it’s not all the candidates’ responsibility.

“I think it’s important and I would encourage students to do a little investigating as to who’s running,” she said. “They can do that very simply by Googling the names or looking at online voter guides.”

Jay Fleischmann, an international relations and predental senior, said he researches the candidates before he goes to polls but it’s still hard to know who to vote for.

“Last time, I voted for (Trustee George) Perles because I looked up a five-second blurb on him and knew he was the football coach so at least he’d been around before,” he said. “If they had an open forum type thing, it’d be easier for students to interact.”

Foster said she used public radio advertisements and open forums as way to get to know the MSU student body before she was elected. She said the nature of the election makes it hard for candidates to focus solely on MSU.

“These candidates are wagering statewide races and moving away from people involved with the university and it becomes kind of obscure,” she said. “I was really accessible (as a candidate) and I like to thing I’m accessible as a trustee, too.”

She said in non-election years, the board has to make more of an effort to reach the student community.

Although the public is allowed to make statements at the board meetings, Foster said that’s a less than ideal place for dialogue.

“We would welcome the opportunity to be more accessible to students,” she said. “I would advocate a place where you could have dialogue. I mean, an informal exchange setting that isn’t intimidating to anybody.”