‘We deserve not just a seat at the table, but a vote’

The California State Capitol in Sacramento, Calif. (Courtesy of Andre M. / Creative Commons, CC BY 3.0)

Proposed state amendment aims to expand the student vote on the UC Board of Regents

In a system of almost 300,000 students, only two of them represent the student population on the University of California (UC) Board of Regents and only one has the ability to cast a vote. A new assembly constitutional amendment making its way through the state legislature, ACA 18, is aiming to change the level of representation and increase student voting power.

Authored by State Assemblymember Jessica Caloza (D-Los Angeles) and co-authored by Assemblymember Patrick Ahrens (D-Cupertino), ACA 18 would require the creation of two voting student regents on the board — double the current number — to represent both undergraduate and graduate students.

Members of the UC Student Association (UCSA) have been lobbying for the addition of a second voting student regent as part of their UCweVOTE initiative since 2021. UCSA Government Relations Chair Candice Phan, a third-year sociology major at UC Davis, explained that this initiative gives students a greater role in UC shared governance.

“We deserve not just a seat at the table, but a vote,” Phan said. “We're increasingly concerned about student shared governance and student autonomy, and the UC system respecting student leaders and actually listening to us.”

The UC Regents are in charge of the university system’s governance, creating policy, managing the $53.5 billion annual budget, $190 billion in investments, three national labs and six health centers.

Students sitting on the UC Board of Regents serve two-year terms. Their first year is spent as a student regent designate, without the ability to vote on board deliberations. The application for the designate position is open to undergraduate and graduate students, who are then interviewed by UCSA members and select regents. After their first year shadowing the UC student regent, they succeed them and gain the ability to cast votes on the UC Board of Regents.

ACA 18 is not the first time legislation has sought to expand student voting power; in 2021, then state Senator Steve Glazer (D-Orinda) introduced Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 (SCA 5) to that effect. SCA 5 eventually failed to progress through the chambers of the state legislature.

Compared to SCA 5, ACA 18 would additionally require the two voting student regents to represent both undergraduate and graduate students. Historically, a greater number of graduate students have served on the board in comparison to undergraduates.

The need for undergraduate student representation has been central to UCSA’s advocacy efforts, according to UCweVOTE Chair Samantha Zavala, a third-year public policy major at UC Riverside.

“When we were drafting it, we were thinking ‘What does student representation look like, and what's the state of it now?’” Zavala said. “Graduate students should be represented, but where are the undergraduates at the table? There's no policy ensuring that there is an undergraduate representative and there is a graduate representative. Both sides deserve to be explored and represented.”

Evelin Chavez, a member of UCSA’s board of directors and a second-year legal studies major at UC Santa Cruz, described her hopes that the UC can follow in the steps of the Cal State and California Community College systems who both have two voting students on their governing boards.

“As an organizing director, I have interacted with the regents frequently,” Chavez said. “It's important to note that the Cal States and California Community College counterparts already have two [student] seats on [their governing boards]. So why can't we do the same? Why can't we follow?”

ACA 18 has to be approved by both chambers of the state legislature in order for it to appear on the ballot in November. If that ballot reaches a simple majority by California voters, it will be enacted.

“It is going to take a lot of legislative support, doing a lot of press conferences, educating the general public about this and amending it and taking it in perspective,” Zavala said. “Once it gets to the ballot, that is something that all the students are going to be mobilizing for.”

For student advocates like Zavala, expanding the student vote on the board represents a way to ensure that students have a more tangible way to advocate beyond public comments at UC Regents meetings.

“ACA 18 is not just about the UC,” Zavala said. “It's not even just about students. It's about the power of education and making sure that communities who are affected by big government, big policymakers, deserve a voice. And that voice should not only be heard, but protected.”

Written by: Khadeejah Khan — campus@theaggie.org