This summer, on July 1, Stephen Patrick Rockwell assumed his position as one of two undergraduate student-elected members of the Cornell Board of Trustees. Having served on the Student Assembly for two years, first as a freshman at-large and then as undesignated at-large and Student Assembly president, Rockwell brings to the trustee post a wealth of campus political experience and insight.
His experience, however, has not quelled his commitment and devotion to the university nor has it jaded his vision of a better Cornell. If anything, it has strengthened his resolve to help improve the institution. This 20-year-old native of Marleton, N.J., brings to the board a commitment to both institutional integrity and social responsibility.
Rockwell notes that, by virtue of his position, it's necessary for him to try to uphold both ideals, though they may seem diverse.
"I think the role of student-elected trustee is a somewhat confusing one," he said. "When you're a member of the board of trustees, then your first priority is to the well-being of the institution; but you're also sent to the board by the students in an elected position to represent them. . . .I think you need to draw a balance between the two."
So how does Rockwell propose to accomplish this balance?
"One example of what I'd like to see happen is 'trustee initiatives,'" he said. "Both [student] trustees would agree to focus on something as a trustee position and then they would do much publicly and privately to work toward that goal."
It is Rockwell's belief that the establishment of trustee initiatives would improve the transition from one student-elected board member to another.
"As we go through the years, work can continue on certain initiatives," he said. "It would institutionalize past work. Presently things can get lost between trustees. I'd like to see the position become more public."
For his part Rockwell, a junior in the College of Human Ecology, plans on working publicly with many groups of students as well as the administration.
"The institution needs to ask itself, what are Cornell's responsibilities to the local community, to its workers, to the environment and to its students, i.e., need-blind admissions and financial aid," he said. "Are these just nice things that Cornell can offer right now, or are these social responsibilities?"
The notion of social responsibility has inspired Rockwell from an early age. Since he was young, he says, his mother raised him in the awareness of social struggles.
"Politics is in my blood," he said. "It's something I always wanted to do, since I was 3 years old. Early influences included the Founders, Robert Kennedy, John Kennedy, Martin Luther King and Malcolm X."
The lives of these figures made an impact on his views and have brought him to focus on one issue in particular: race relations within the United States. His struggle with this issue has permeated his experience at Cornell. As a student trustee, he can't help but reflect on race relations on the Cornell campus, he says, and he wonders about the role of residential communities at the university.
"Are they inextricably linked with societal issues of race and racism?" he asked. "Before the administration moves forward with initiatives, they should at least be asking these questions and the community should be willing to answer them." In the immediate future his next two years at Cornell Rockwell says he has committed himself to do what he can to make sure this type of appraisal occurs.
As for the long term, he said: "Ten or 15 years down the line...hopefully, I see myself happy. That's it. And, hopefully, I'm still doing the right thing."