The duties of each are prescribed by Article XVII and the organization's bylaws[7][10] The executive board for the 2023 - 2024 academic year consists of Alexander Ruiz as President, Jae Fish as Vice President, Enid Walker as Treasurer and Jalen Miller as Secretary.
In 1971, the State Legislature added five student voting members to Cornell's Board of Trustees.
However, at that time, all members of a board must be over the age of 21 for a corporation to hold a liquor license, so to allow Cornell to retain its license, the legislature had to go back to amend NYS Alcoholic Beverage Control Law § 126(4) to require that half the board must be 21.
Two Attorney General of the State of New York opinion letters[42] reduced the parliamentary rights of the student members to participate at meetings and indicated that they were not in fact Public Officers, and arguably subject to personal liability from lawsuits.
In 1977, another statutory amendment made student members of SUNY councils and boards subject to the NYS Public Officers Law or NYS General Municipal Law and granted student representatives parliamentary powers of moving or seconding motions and of placing items on the agendas of the bodies.