Editorial: Attendance of Davis, Bustamante not hot

Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante was accused last week of
poor attendance at university board meetings by state Sen. Bruce
McPherson, R-Santa Cruz.

McPherson, the Republican nominee for lieutenant governor in
this November’s elections, said Bustamante attended only 17
percent of University of California Board of Regents meetings and
only 4 percent of California State University Board of Trustees
meetings. While independent calculation of Bustamante’s
attendance reveals the figures are slightly higher ““
according to how many meetings are considered in the math ““
his attendance is still quite low.

Disturbingly enough, the person on the board who has a worse
record for attending university board meetings is Gov. Gray Davis
himself. Although Davis did attend regents meetings as lieutenant
governor, he has not attended any at all since he became
governor.

This is not particularly stellar for a governor who campaigns
under a platform stating education is his top priority. To have the
two most highly ranked officials on the board of regents never
present is a disservice to the UC community.

Currently, only one voting student regent sits on the board;
this year it is UC Berkeley student Dexter Ligot-Gordon. He is
expected to represent thousands of students from the nine UC
campuses ““ an enormous task to say the least. That the
governor and lieutenant governor take a position which affects
students to such a great extent so lightly, in light of the poor
representation students have on the board already, is
insulting.

Both Davis and Bustamante have the ability to wield incredible
influence on the board. They’re the two highest ranked
officials in the state; Davis himself appointed many of the members
himself. The two could have involved themselves more in bringing
about change faster ““ such as when comprehensive review and
examining the validity of the SAT I as a testing method were hot
issues last year. Or, they could also have been present last year
and this summer when the regents were preparing for possible budget
cuts from the state, or this summer when the regents were trying to
figure out what to do because of the delayed state budget
approval.

If Davis and Bustamante plan to campaign on their education
records as elections get closer, they will certainly need to
explain why voters should believe education is a top priority if
they’re ignoring their jobs at the UC and CSU.