Senator rallies at UCLA for proposed state constitutional amendment

This post was updated on Feb. 6 at 7:38 p.m.

Student government leaders and a state senator led a rally Friday at Bruin Plaza for a proposed state constitutional amendment that would give more power to the Legislature in controlling the University of California.

Currently, the University is governed by its Board of Regents, a body independent of the state Legislature. Senate Constitutional Amendment 1, created jointly by Senators Ricardo Lara (D-Bell Gardens) and Anthony Cannella (R-Ceres), would allow the state to make laws affecting UC governance, such as tuition hikes.

The process for passing such an amendment is extensive, requiring two-thirds approval from both chambers of the state legislature or more than half a million voter signatures to get the proposal on the ballot. A majority of voters would have to vote for the proposal in order for it to be enacted.

The rally came as a response to a proposal the regents passed in November that may increase tuition by up to 5 percent annually for the next five years, said Conrad Contreras, the Undergraduate Students Association Council external vice president. The regents approved the plan because they said they need the revenue if the state does not significantly increase its funding to the University.

Lara spoke at the rally, which about 30 people attended and hundreds stopped to see, and criticized what he said is a lack of transparency and accountability within the UC, particularly when it comes to its expenditures. He said the UC needs to disclose how much it spends in certain areas, from undergraduate and graduate education to research and construction.

On issues like tuition increases, the amendment would allow the state to pass laws giving it the privilege to overrule or have the final say on regents’ decisions, thus allowing the state to prevent tuition hikes in the future.

UC spokeswoman Dianne Klein said though the regents are independent from the state, they and the University are still held accountable on virtually every issue.

“I can’t even count the number of reports about our operations. We testify regularly before the legislature, and we are dependent on the state for its proportion of state funding,” Klein said.

She compared the UC to the California State University system, which is subject to oversight by the state Legislature, and said that CSU has seen the same decline in state funding and similar tuition increases.

“If (maintaining current tuition) could be a measure of why you would want to do this, that doesn’t seem to hold up,” she said.

However, Lara said he thinks the CSU system has more transparency as their financials are shown to the state legislature.

USAC President Avinoam Baral, who attended the rally to learn more about the proposal, said he doesn’t support the amendment because he thinks it won’t actually help students with issues like tuition. He said he thinks the amendment simply transfers power from one political group to another.

“I’m opposed to SCA 1 because it does not cut to the core of the issue, only further making higher education in California a political game,” Baral said.

Contreras said he thinks the amendment will put pressure on regents to repeal the tuition hike plan they approved in November.

“Once we get a lot of support for it and get people hyped up, it’s going to get the UC Regents and admins scared,” Contreras said. “We can leverage that and say if you want us to help you, revoke the tuition policy you just passed.”

Lara said he is hopeful the amendment will succeed with bipartisan support in the state Legislature, though it may still be too soon to judge support for the bill.

He did not have more details yet about the next steps in the campaign.