Student regent-designate named at Board meeting

By Robert Salonga
Daily Bruin Staff

Student regent-designate Dexter Ligot-Gordon has set his sights
on issues that include increasing collaboration between student
outreach programs throughout the University of California and
pushing for the repeal of the SAT I test as a basis for
admissions.

“One of my underlying concerns is that Pilipinos have been
absent or invisible in politics statewide.” Dexter
Ligot-Gordon Student-regent designate

Ligot-Gordon was appointed to the position at last week’s
UC Board of Regents meeting in San Francisco. His term as student
regent will take effect for the 2002-03 academic year.

Ligot-Gordon said he recognizes the importance of his position
““ a position created last year and first held by current
student regent Tracy Davis.

“There are only two students on the board with the
perspective of a current student,” he said. “Current
and future students are the ultimate stakeholders in the
university.”

He said he hopes to work with Davis so that student perspective
is if he and Davis end up with conflicting ideologies.

“But in a respect, that’s good because the
university is diverse,” he said.

Ligot-Gordon, a third-year public policy student at UC Berkeley,
said the SAT I has very little predicting power on how a student
will perform in the UC, especially compared to indicators such as
grade point average and SAT II subject test scores.

UC President Richard Atkinson proposed dropping the SAT I from
admissions criteria in February, sparking a national debate on the
topic.

“The test is flawed in how it’s being used, because
it tries to test some innate quality of intelligence,”
Ligot-Gordon said. “If you’re not testing subject
matter, then what exactly are you testing?”

Ligot-Gordon said he is still open to using the SAT I, but that
from what he’s seen so far, it’s a poor criterion for
admissions.

“It’s a dead branch that needs to be pruned,”
he said.

One issue about which the student regent-designate feels most
passionate is student-initiated outreach in the UC. Ligot-Gordon,
who served as director of recruitment for Pilipino Academic Student
Services at Berkeley, said he hopes to work with student-initiated
outreach programs statewide to establish a network.

“To do this type of outreach, you need to have an attitude
of service and sacrifice,” Ligot-Gordon said. “These
people do a tremendous job working to bring more students that are
underserved at the university.”

“I have a lot of respect for them and support them as much
as I can,” he continued.

As a Pilipino American, Ligot-Gordon also wants to push
Pilipinos in California into the political mainstream. According to
the 2000 state census, there are about 1 million Pilipinos who
reside in California, not including those of mixed Pilipino
descent.

“One of my underlying concerns is that Pilipinos have been
absent or invisible in politics statewide despite the fact that we
are a large and growing ethnic group in California,”
Ligot-Gordon said.

“This does not mean that I’m here to solely serve
Pilipinos,” he added. “I’m here to serve the
state as a Pilipino.”

Furthermore, Ligot-Gordon emphasized that he’s here to
serve students as a regent and welcomes their input.

“This is an open invitation for them to keep me
accountable to the students,” he said. “I want people
to call me up and tell me about their concerns, ideas, and
strategies.”