Miguel Craven, a UC Merced alum, aims to address housing inequity and increase access to education
By KHADEEJAH KHAN — campus@theaggie.org
For the first time in 20 years, a UC Davis student has been appointed to serve as a student regent-designate.
Miguel Craven, a first-year energy systems master’s student, will serve alongside the UC Regents — the governing board of the University of California (UC) system, who hold full responsibility for creating university policy and managing the $53.5 billion annual budget, $190 billion in investments, three national labs and six health centers.
The student regent-designate, one of the two students appointed on the 26-member board, serves a two-year tenure, with their second year spent as a voting student regent. Student designates are selected from an application pool of undergraduate and graduate student applicants who are narrowed down to be interviewed by UC Student Association and several regents.
Once appointed by the UC Board of Regents, designates begin their tenure in July, shadowing the student regent throughout the academic year until they succeed them in being eligible to cast votes on the board. Adam Rosenthal was the previous student regent from UC Davis, serving from 2005 to 2006.
Craven’s journey in student advocacy started long before his recent appointment. Before matriculating from UC Merced this past spring, he served as a senator and president of the Associated Students of UC Merced (ASUCM). During his tenure, he led a campaign for a student union building on campus, successfully passing a student fee referendum to fund a central space for campus resources and student connection.
“I loved working with students on my campus and helping them with organizing, whether that was their own advocacy efforts or if they wanted to have just club events that have that sense of community on campus,” Craven said.
This is also not Craven’s first experience at the Regents board. While at ASUCM, he worked closely with the campus’ external affairs vice president and learned more about systemwide advocacy efforts, including regental advocacy. He served as a student observer to the Regents’ Committee on Finance and Capital Strategies for two years, bringing forth student concerns.
“Seeing it from behind the scenes made me really appreciate how much work goes into making the UC operate,” Craven said. “Being from California, I’ve seen the impact that the UC has on the whole state. I’m very proud to be Californian. I wanted to find a way to not only get more involved within the UC but also give back to the state.”
As a student designate, Craven now represents more than 280,000 undergraduate and graduate students across all 10 UC campuses. While primarily acting as a bridge between students and the board of regents, Craven also hopes to represent staff, faculty and Californians as a whole. He is passionate about addressing housing inequity and access to education, aiming to find “creative solutions” to issues faced by the UC community.
“The description for the role says that you are there to represent the entire state,” Craven said. “The way that I’ve been telling everybody I’m entering the role is around education. That’s how I want to implement it — figuring out how I can be of best use by educating on both ends.”
Craven recognizes that advocacy, especially at the regents level, can be inaccessible for students who can’t attend the board’s meetings. He emphasized that his role is to be an accessible resource on campus for students who want to voice their concerns, which may otherwise be left unheard.
“I’m here to support you, and the same thing goes towards the regents,” Craven said. “I’m here to support them to get their [students’] voices back into that conversation. I just want to educate the board: ‘Here’s what the reality is, here’s what students want. I’m not going to convince you to vote a certain way or not, but I will do whatever I can to make sure that you have all the information, all of the shared experiences, [of] what’s actually happening on the ground. And, from there, you can make your best educated opinion.’”
At a time when students, staff and faculty across the system are advocating in response to federal budget cuts, Craven looks towards the role of advocacy as an avenue for change. He encourages students to reach out to him at mcraven3@ucmerced.edu or through his work number at (530) 219-6226.
“Everybody wants to improve the UC,” Craven said. “Everybody wants better for everyone. It’s just a matter of — [and] I think people have different approaches to it — figuring out, okay, what’s the middle ground, and how can we help one another out?”
Written by: Khadeejah Khan — campus@theaggie.org
