Student Regent Jonathan Stein and Student Regent-designate Cinthia Flores went on a UC-wide tour to educate students about Proposition 30 and what it means to the UC system this past month. The two came to UC Davis on Friday as part of this tour.
The turnout was abysmal. Less than half of the seats were filled for the conference. Of those seats filled, most were members of student government. This is not acceptable. It is more important now than ever to be informed of the issues that directly affect us as students.
The regents rarely come to campus. ASUCD must make a bigger effort to publicize those events. Simply providing a venue for the regents to speak is not enough. ASUCD has the resources at its disposal to reach students on a mass scale. A campus-wide email to the student body informing them that the regents were coming could have dramatically increased student turnout.
On Tuesday, Prop. 30 passed with a vote of 53.9 percent to 46.1 percent. While this is a step in the right direction, state investment in higher education has decreased to unacceptable levels in the past 10 years. The student regents are one of the best ways we can fight further cuts to education. They represent us on the UC Board of Regents, and we must take the chance to learn and be informed.
We cannot feign surprise and anger when tuition and fees increase in the future if we do not make the effort to educate ourselves. We’re all in this together.
