The Florida Atlantic University Board of Trustees concluded their final spring semester meeting on April 8, with FAU President Adam Hanser attending his first official meeting under his administration and bidding farewell to two trustees leaving the board.

The two, Student Body President Stefan Andjelkovic, who has been on the board since 2024 and Faculty Senate President Kimberly Dunn since 2021, said their final goodbyes as the board presented them with awards recognizing their contributions to the university. The president of the FAU Student Government and the president of the University Faculty Senate are chairs on the board but are not appointed by the governor or Board of Governors, unlike others on the board, according to the university’s website.

President Hasner thanked Andjelkovic for the “blood, sweat and tears” he dedicated to the university. Andjelkovic, who has served since he was appointed student body president in an unopposed election last February, will graduate as a finance major this semester and move to New York City for a job offer with UBS, an investment banking company. 

“Stefan Andjelkovic has been a passionate, warm and articulate spokesperson for Florida Atlantic’s 30,000 students, making sure that their views were heard and their interests represented as important policy decisions were made,” said Vice Chair of the BOT, Sherry Murphy, as she read the resolution for his award.

According to Andjelkovic’s “Student Body Update” presentation about the financial report for this academic year, FAU’s Student Government used the budget of $9.5 million that primarily funded programs on behalf of the association. He said students could utilize up to $3,000 in SG-sponsored discounts, scholarships and benefits if they took advantage of all the available resources.

“Student government acquires its funds through student tuition. For every credit hour a student pays, $12.32 gets acquired by student government,” he said in the meeting, stating that a student government president would ask themselves at the end of the year: “Are the students getting their money’s worth?” He said the short and confident answer is, “Yes.”

Some of his notable accomplishments this academic year, Andjelkovic mentioned, were collaborating with the City of Boca Raton to establish “Free Beach Parking” for Florida Atlantic students who are Boca residents. Another program, which he called “legendary,” allowed students to offset $25 parking tickets from the Transportation Department by donating food cans. 

Andjelkovic thanked this program as he had accumulated six tickets over his four years, and not paying them would prevent him from graduating. In return, he said the can donations go to the Food Pantry on the Boca Raton campus.

After Andjelkovic’s recognition, Murphy read Dunn’s resolution for her, stating that during her tenure, she provided a “great value to the people of the state of Florida.”

“’Doctor Kimberly Dunn has consistently demonstrated her wholehearted commitment to the highest standards of public service in carrying out her responsibilities as a member of the board,” said Murphy. 

Hanser thanked Dunn for her four years on the board. In May of 2021, the governing body of the Faculty Senate voted her to the position after Political Science Professor Kevin Wagner completed his four years as Senate president. Hanser then said they would soon work together in her new role as a BOG faculty representative. 

“I encourage our appointed trustees to prioritize understanding the faculty perspective, knowing that we served many decades in the academy and care deeply about our institution,” Dunn said. 

As Dunn finished her final “words of wisdom,” she passed the torch to William Trapani, associate professor at the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters, who will serve as the next chair of the University Faculty Senate on the board.

Dunn stated in an email to the University Press that Trapani was elected last spring and his term will begin at the last UFS meeting of this semester, which will take place on April 21.

Michael Cook is the Managing Editor for the University Press. For information regarding this or other stories, email michael17cook@gmail.com.