Forum calls for greater student representation on UC Board of Regents
By Daily Bruin Staff
Feb. 5, 2015 12:58 a.m.
During a forum at UCLA on Wednesday, University of California student leaders said they think the UC Board of Regents needs more student representation.
The forum was part of the student leaders’ University-wide tour to talk about their roles as well as to recruit students for the positions. About 20 students attended the event.
Avi Oved, student regent-designate, said he wanted to educate students about the job and reach out to students to hear about their needs. Oved met with UCLA students along with Sadia Saifuddin, student regent and a UC Berkeley student.
“The best thing a student regent can do is to legitimize students’ needs,” said Oved, a fourth-year economics student at UCLA.
A student regent, after serving a year as a student regent-designate, serves as one of 26 voting members on the UC Board of Regents.
At the forum, Oved said he thinks student regents’ power comes not from voting, but from the ability to influence and make students’ voices heard on the board. He added that he thinks student regents represent students, not the Board of Regents or the president of the University.
Oved and Saifuddin also discussed what they said are important issues facing the UC, including a proposal to increase tuition by up to 5 percent for the next five years if the state does not allocate enough funding to the University.
Saifuddin said she thinks the state has not funded the University adequately.
Over the past weeks, the student leaders said they have talked to staff in Gov. Jerry Brown’s office about Brown’s plan for higher education but haven’t heard anything tangible.
“As of yet, they don’t have any data or complete plans that they can share with us,” Oved said.
They also said they think the board needs to incorporate more student voices and is in need of structural reform. However, they said they think increasing student representation on the board is challenging because doing so would require a constitutional amendment.
Oved and Saifuddin also talked about applying for the student regent position.
Any undergraduate or graduate student in the UC system can apply for the student regent-designate position. The application is due via email by Feb. 22. After the application process, students will go through a two-month interview process before the board makes an appointment in July.
“Be resilient. You have to be confident with the skills that you have,” Oved said to prospective applicants.
Saifuddin said applicants for the position should be knowledgeable about the UC.
“Be prepared when you walk into the interview. Practice, practice, practice,” Saifuddin said.
Some students said they thought it was interesting to hear about student regents’ work and learn about their criticism of the UC system.
Angela Yip, a second-year political science and Asian American studies student, said she wanted to know how student regents can make themselves heard in the regents’ meetings.
Alex Abramoff, a third-year Middle Eastern studies and Jewish studies student, said the forum was helpful in informing him about how the University is run and who the regents are.
Abramoff, a transfer student, said he would like to see more representation for transfer students in University leadership.
As part of the tour, Oved and Saifuddin are set to visit UC Davis on Monday, UC Riverside on Tuesday and UC Merced on Wednesday.
