Letters

Monday, December 1, 1997

Letters

Regents neglect California views

In a response to recent criticism of the Board of Regents for
failing to consider, much less represent, the opinions of the
students, staff and faculty, Mike Oliver ("That’s the way it should
be," Nov. 26) chastises critics of the regents for failing to
understand that the Board of Regents is supposed to represent the
people of California.

However, Mr. Oliver fails to notice the complete failure of the
Board of Regents to represent our great state.

Currently, the regents are overwhelmingly
Republican/conservative (with California approximately evenly
split) as well as overwhelmingly upper-class. Moreover, there is
also an overrepresentation of whites (with an underrepresentation
of Latinos/Chicanos) as well as a disproportionate representation
of real-estate agents, attorneys, and current and former
politicians on the board.

This blatant (and arguably deliberate) failure to represent the
state of California may explain why the regents frequently take up
issues more political than educational; engage in union-busting
tactics against staff, residents and graduate students, and have
our campus continually in a construction straightjacket.

The Board of Regents needs to pay closer attention to their
primary mission: shepherding the University of California back to
its position as the premier public educational institution in the
nation.

John Hetts

Graduate student

Social psychology