Regent Katherine White will serve as the next chair of the Board of Regents for a one-year term beginning July 1. Regent Shauna Ryder Diggs was named vice chair when the appointments were announced June 19 by Regent Andrea Fischer Newman at the board’s monthly meeting.

According to the regents’ bylaws, the chair and vice chair are appointed based on seniority, and the vice chair automatically succeeds to the position of chair.

Primary duties of the chair include: setting the annual schedule of meetings, agenda and major topics for presentation or study by the board; monitoring committee agenda planning for coordination and comprehensiveness; acting as spokesperson and convener of the board, when appropriate; presiding over executive sessions when held without the president; and appointing the chair and members of the ad hoc and standing committees.

If the president is unable to attend a public meeting or must be out of the room during any part of the meeting, the chair will preside. If the chair is unable to perform the duties, the vice chair will assume them.

President Mary Sue Coleman thanked outgoing Chair Fischer Newman and Vice Chair White for their leadership in the last year.

“People don’t understand how much time it takes to be the chair,” Coleman said. “It is a thankless job, in many ways, but I have appreciated your work behind the scenes.”