Q&A: Student Regent Alfredo Mireles Jr. and Student Regent-designate Jonathan Stein

Student Regent Alfredo Mireles Jr. and Student Regent-designate Jonathan Stein of the UC Board of Regents spoke about the budget crisis at the Undergraduate Students Association Council meeting on Tuesday. Mireles and Stein also sat down with Daily Bruin contributors Emily Suh and Naheed Rajwani to discuss their role on the UC Board of Regents and the funding challenges facing the UC.

Daily Bruin: Can you identify what you see as the critical areas of concern for the University of California?

Alfredo Mireles: Sure. That’s why I’m here today. We have a projected $2.4 billion budget shortfall over the next four years out of a currently $22 billion budget. Internally, through a myriad of ways we’ve saved about a billion dollars. So what remains over the next four years is ““ it’s the Regents’s judiciary responsibility to fill that $1.4 to 1.5 billion budget gap that still persists. So that, for me, is the most pressing issue. Finding solutions to that tremendous budget gap is not easy. I’m trying to educate students here at UCLA and other campuses to make sure to get all ideas from individual students if they have ideas on what they think we could do. For me, I would say that’s the most pressing issue. There’s always other issues. Often times they’re campus-specific. But that’s why I’m here today, and I think that’s the most pressing issue.

DB: California’s public universities have experienced the highest tuition hikes compared to public universities nationally. This year, students saw a 9.6 percent tuition increase. How likely is it that we will see another increase in tuition next year?

AM: Even if we get the governor’s $100 million trigger cut, which does appear to be in the works, there is no current plan for a midyear tuition increase. As far as next year goes, we typically make that decision at the November Regents meeting but we will not be deciding tuition policy for academic year 2012-2013 until March. It’s probably more than likely that there will be some kind of tuition increase, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t organize or fight back against it and make sure that Regents know how it will affect students. I will, of course, be voting against it. I think we’ve got our fair share filling the budget of the university. No decisions have been made yet and I encourage students to stay engaged and active and fight back against any tuition increase that is proposed.

DB: Over the past years, the state contribution to the UC system has declined, causing trigger cuts across campuses and increases in tuition. What alternatives, if any, are the regents looking at to offset the impacts brought on by these cuts?

AM: The Regents have looked at several things, many of which are unpopular and thankfully we have rejected most of the unpopular options. We could move from more full-time faculty to lecturers, we could cut student services, we could raise tuition, we admit more out-of-state and international students which we have already done to some extent, we could decrease in-state California enrollment, which potentially could save us money but has not necessarily been seen as a panacea to save costs. There is a whole host of things like that, but there are currently no easy answers. The policies we have decided to pursue are unfortunately the best of the worst options we have.

DB: Tell us about the regents from your perspective as a student member of the board.

AM: You know, they are people. They might come from different backgrounds and a different set of experiences, but I guarantee, nobody serves on the board of regents with the desire to raise tuition. Many of them come from the corporate world, which I think can be estranging to a lot of students like myself who don’t have that experience. For instance, paying a vice chancellor $250,000 a year seems normal to people who come from the million-dollar corporate world but to those of us who don’t come from these backgrounds, it seems completely absurd. But a lot of them have done interesting things ““ things if they weren’t regents, students would think they are really cool ““ but the fact that they raise tuition and sometimes make decisions students don’t agree with makes their role less attractive to students.

DB: In the past, you indicated support for the DREAM Act, which was passed earlier this month. Looking ahead, what are your goals on the year?

AM: It’s my understanding that the Office of the President finally chose the staff ““ a joint staff ““ that’s working with the California Student Aid Commission to create a FAFSA-like form for undocumented AB-540 students who can’t file FAFSA forms and also don’t necessarily have ““ their parents don’t have ““ the paycheck stubs or tax information to have the necessary information to file, to make sure their income eligibility. Such a process already exists for documented students who come from families that don’t have the appropriate paperwork to file a FAFSA form. One of the things I was really worried about is the policy passing but then doing the hard work to make sure it’s actually implemented. We’re in that process now. We have a little bit of time before UC students can start getting aid institutionally but I am aggressively pursuing ways to get that policy implemented. Actually, after this interview, I’m going to an IDEAS fundraiser to meet with some AB-540 students.

DB (to Jonathan Stein): As the student regent-designate, you will not be voting this year. What role do you see yourself playing in the meantime?

Jonathan Stein: It is really important to me that we find a way to stop or slow fee increases and find a way to balance the budget, find a way to maintain the excellence of this university and fill our budget gap. I’m really interested in working on campus climate issues and making sure that the promises the university has made over the course of the last year or more actually comes true, that we see real concrete changes in the life of students of color. I am really interested in making the UC a more effective advocate for itself in Sacramento. To summarize, my first priority is funding and fees. My second priority is campus climates. And then there are priorities three through 10.

DB: Previously you indicated you wanted to be more accessible to students and communicate more effectively with them. How are you going about doing this?

JS: Everyone we meet gets our email address and our cellphone numbers. We ask everyone we meet to friend us on Facebook. We have 45-minute- long follow-up conversations with people if we have the time if they have questions. Additionally, we are in the process of building a website so students have full information about our activities, our meetings, our proposals, and our positions. And it’ll be an opportunity to reach out to us as well so that everything we do will be transparent to students, and students will always have a way to contact us.

DB: When will this website be ready?

JS: Hopefully ““ I just saw a rough draft of it today ““ so hopefully in the next couple weeks.

Email Suh at [email protected] and Rajwani at [email protected]