When Chris Borkowski went to bed on June 30, the sophomore political pundit had survived his first year in University Senate and Student Government Association.
A day later, he was asked to help craft Ball State's multi-million dollar budget.
As the newest, and only student, member of Indiana's Commission for Higher Education, Borkowski has entered a world where university presidents seek him out, state legislators ask his opinions and students across the state use him as their collective voice.
His second meeting with the Commission will be today in Bloomington.
"I was shocked. I was very shocked," Borkowski, an Indianapolis native said. "I was really surprised at the prestige of the position. Everything I do involves some aspect of higher learning. This is one way I can voice my ideas and the ideas of others.
"I'm still in denial that I got the position, but it's sinking in."
The Commission -- comprised of one faculty member, one student and 11 other Indiana residents with no formal ties to higher education -- yields considerable advisory power over universities.
Before legislators approve universities' budgets, commissioners must first judge the proposals, and they are free to change them as they see fit.
Their recommendations constitute "one of the voices policy makers regularly listen to," said Dan Reagan, an associate professor of political science and a commissioner from 1997 to 2001.
"(The Commission's) single most important source of influence is its budget recommendation," he said. "He's (Borkowski) going to be surrounded by interesting and powerful people. My guess is he is going to get very busy...but he's going to have a lot of fun."
The Commission also wields some control over universities' academic programs and can decide whether universities can implement new degrees.
Because of its influence, commission membership is usually reserved for seniors and juniors, which made political science professor Ray Scheele question Borkowski's chances as he drafted him a letter of recommendation for it.
"He was a freshman, and I told him at the time it usually goes to upper classmen," Scheele said. "He knew the odds going in, and obviously he stood out.
"He's a good student and has very clear goals for himself. I thought he was very capable."
University budgets and educational policies are not topics normally found in Borkowski's majors, premed and political science. However, he said he's learned to look to other commissioners to translate the dozens of pages he had to sift through at his first meeting on Aug. 9.
During that meeting, seven new academic programs needed the members' approval, followed by a vote on the Commission's budget and officer election.
Afterwards, members listened as universities touted their capital projects budgets, justifying millions of dollars in expenditures.
"Here I am, the only 19-year-old in the room, and at least everyone else in there is at least two or three times my age," Borkowski said. "At my first meeting, they acted as if they were guarding me.
"I'm still learning as I go."
Other commissioners, however, knew how Borkowski felt, said Arthur Hansen, a member since 1994.
"That's common among all the commissioners. It takes time," Hansen said. "There's a lot of things that you don't anticipate."
Though he may not understand the educational nuances of his new career, Borkowski said he knows what it's like to be a Ball State student, a perspective missing among the Commission since 1994, when then-Ball State student John Ray ended his term.
Yet, Borkowski emphasized that he cannot and will not give the university any special preference.
Still, as a student, he said he hopes to foster greater communication among the states' student population, particularly through student leaders and organizations, and he is currently engineering the State Student Leadership Conference in November.
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