UC Regents should not retreat

Correction: The original version of this column published on Nov. 22 contained an error. UC Berkeley is about six miles closer to UCOP headquarters than UC San Francisco.

Except for a spattering of protesters, few undergraduates were around to see administrators increase their tuition by almost $1,000.

That’s because last week’s meeting ““ like every other UC Board of Regents meeting this year ““ was held at the University of California’s only graduate student campus: UC San Francisco.

The remote location of the November meeting reveals a lack of transparency in UC government, as well as a disappointing unwillingness to engage students in the decision-making process ““ regardless of whether the fee increase was a last-ditch attempt to save the university or simply poor judgment.

The most tell-tale sign of this is that there’s no convincing reason for the meetings to be at UC San Francisco except to avoid angry students.

Only two administrators decide on the location of the bi-monthly meetings: Chairman Russell Gould and President Mark Yudof. For the first time in a decade, they decided that none of this year’s meetings would be held at an undergraduate campus.

UC spokesman Steve Montiel said that they prefer UC San Francisco because it saves on travel expenses for UC Office of the President staff members who commute from Oakland. He also said that the graduate campus has a great meeting room.

But these claims seem rather disingenuous. Two meetings last year were at UC Riverside and UCLA, and the next meeting, in January, is scheduled to be held at UC San Diego.

All of our campuses have perfectly adequate facilities ““ proven by the fact that meetings have been held in places such as Covel Commons.

Furthermore, the regents themselves travel from all over California to attend meetings, so they’re not saving a significant amount of money.

What really got me, though, is when I realized that UC Berkeley about six miles closer to UCOP headquarters than UC San Francisco.

Despite the obvious alternative, just one meeting has been held there in the last 10 years.
When I asked Montiel why meetings aren’t held at UC Berkeley, all he said was that he couldn’t even remember when the last meeting was there.

I can’t help but wonder if that’s because of Berkeley’s reputation as the most politically active campus.

As Undergraduate Students Association Council President Jasmine Hill said, after last year’s protests, the regents wanted to “keep themselves in the ivory tower.”

Meeting at a graduate campus that undergraduates rarely hear about isolates students and regents, geographically and emotionally. Regular meetings on an undergraduate campus with more student input might actually help quell the tirade of angry protesters, who currently hype up the infrequent meetings at the undergraduate campuses.

Students should be given a fair chance to speak at these meetings, and that means they shouldn’t always have to take a van ““ as a few UCLA students did last week ““ across California to do it.

Given that a mere 26 people hold the fates of hundreds of thousands of undergraduates in their hands, it is only reasonable to expect meetings on one of the undergraduate campuses.

The agenda for January’s meeting in San Diego hasn’t been posted yet, but I suspect it won’t be touching students’ wallets.

Nevertheless, students should attend the meeting to see what other decisions are made.

Although they hardly get the media attention of student fee increases, meeting agendas include all kinds of things that affect undergraduates, from salary increases to health care services.

You might want to take advantage of it. So far, the next meeting is the only one in the next six months scheduled outside of UC San Francisco.

Think the regents are actively evading students? Email Nijhawan at [email protected]. Send general comments to [email protected].