New student regent stresses student voice as essential
By Michael Howerton
Daily Bruin Staff
As UC Berkeley law student Jess Bravin settled into his first
meeting as the newly approved student regent for next year, the
board warmly welcomed him and one of their members lavished him
with the highest praise.
"Jess has done all kinds of good student work," Regent William
Bagley said at the meeting in San Francisco two weeks ago, adding
that he is looking forward to having a student regent who he thinks
will be "very cooperative so he will be listened to."
The boos and hisses from the audience at this remark underscored
the tension and hostility that has surrounded the student regent
position in recent months.
Student groups have repeatedly charged the board with ignoring
their input. In addition, the board’s firm stance that they alone
chart the university’s course has increasingly caused pressure to
rest on the student regent position.
Throughout his tenure this year, Student Regent Ed Gomez has
battled most of the board over their acceptance of measures
eliminating affirmative action in the university.
The growing antagonism between the students and the regents was
demonstrated by the arrest of 10 students at the January regents’
meeting for speaking beyond the imposed 60-second time limit.
Gomez’ combative attitude has marginalized his own voice in policy
discussions, some regents have charged.
The tensions came to a head in the days before the last meeting
when a motion was proposed to eliminate the student regent position
which has sat a student in the board with full voting powers since
1975.
The motion was then dropped just before the meeting in which the
board voted to accept Bravin as the next student regent.
In his first address to the board, Bravin defended the
importance of the student regent position and cited that the law
allows a student representative to sit on every educational policy
board in the state.
"Student membership on governing boards, then, is not a radical
experiment, but a proven way to enhance educational policy,
heighten accountability and strengthen the legitimacy of
institutional governance in a democratic society," he said in his
speech.
"Student participation is essential in university governance,"
he continued. "That is not to say, however, that having a regent
who is a student will always make board meetings run more smoothly,
if smoothly means silently."
Later that afternoon, he demonstrated just what he meant when he
sharply criticized the regents for even considering accepting
differential tuition for professional schools and he accused the
regents of abandoning the guiding principles of the university.
After his comments, Regent Meredith Khachigian joked under her
breath that, "it’s a shame we couldn’t have found someone more
eloquent."
This comment is the epitome of one of the reasons Bravin is
going to be an effective student regent, said Kevin Welner, UCLA’s
graduate external vice-president and member of the board of
directors of the University of California Students’
Association.
"It will be a great benefit to have someone up there who is a
good spokesperson to present our concerns and needs in a compelling
way," Welner said.
"His resume shows him to be arguably more qualified than many of
the appointed regents," he continued. "He only lacks the
contributions to political campaigns, and that only gives us added
credibility."
The student regent position is crucial to governance of the
university, Bravin explained a few days after the meeting, sitting
in his office in the UC Berkeley Graduate Association building.
Since students have a different perspective on the institution
than the regents, the student regent will inevitably differ on some
issues, Bravin explained. The fact that the students only have one
vote among 26 leaves them in the minority on these issues, but the
inclusion at the table of discussion is important.
"In our country, dissent does have an important place. It can be
a powerful force," he said. "Even people who lose, feel their voice
has been heard and that they still have a stake in the
institution."
It is a mistake, Bravin warned, to see any one issue as the
determinant between the winners and the losers. The battle over
affirmative action in the university has been such an issue.
Many viewed the proponents of affirmative action as forever in
the majority and opponents as forever excluded, Bravin said. But
this is being blind to the larger issue that the majority is fluid
and changes constantly with each new issue, he added.
"I think it was a mistake for the board to pass SP-1 and -2 (the
measures which eliminated affirmative action)," Bravin said. "The
place to test issues is not in a policy board, but in the
legislature."
The issue of whether race should be considered in admissions
procedures is not an easy question, he admitted, but the voters
should make the decision as a state. If the California Civil Rights
Initiative passes in eliminating race considerations, then the
board will move on, he said. If voters reject the bill, then the
board will be under extreme pressure to reconsider the issue.
"There’s a subtle balance we need to maintain," he said. "This
country is based on individual rights, but background is a part of
the individual. The problem comes when you take a simple
observation, like this, and institutionalize it.
"The result is that race became a shorthand way to create
diversity in the university," Bravin explained. Although the policy
has holes where some in need fall through and others get swept
along solely because of their race, the truth is that it will be
more difficult to maintain diversity without using race as a
shorthand."
At the board meeting, Bravin whipped out his copy of the 1960
Master Plan, which set forth the roles of public education in
California. While he shook it in front of the other regents, he
accused them of abandoning its principles and questioned if any of
them had even read it.
"I feel that the Master Plan is a remarkable vision of what
education should be," he said, sitting in his office. "I think that
the university has walked away from its compact with the people of
what role it should have and how accessible it should be."
Since he was elected as a finalist in last year’s student regent
election process, Bravin has been working with Welner on drafting
an initiative to reform the Master Plan.
Part of the problem with the original plan is that while it
included avenues in which to fund California’s lower and secondary
education systems, it made no similar provision for higher
education, relying on the voters and legislature to provide the any
funds it needed, Bravin said.
Recently however, there has been a piecemeal dismantling of the
provisions of the Master Plan. This may be because voters and the
state have become more unwilling to provide funds for higher
education.
"(The purpose of the initiative) is to get California to
confront the choice it must make about education," he said.
"California needs to make a choice as a state, not by a small
number of administrators. I want California to reconfirm its
commitment or reject it outright."
More people are getting involved in the proposal, including
Clark Kerr, one of the original authors of the Master Plan, and
California Lt. Gov. Gray Davis, Bravin said.
"Pressure is building to take on higher education and
California’s future," he said. "People see things have to change.
It’s not if, but what kind of reform measures it will be."
The initiative will probably be ready to be put before the
voters in the 1998 state-wide elections, said Welner.
Early on, Bravin took an interest in activism. His interned with
the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors as a 14-year-old – their
youngest intern ever – and with the state senate the following
year.
As a student at Westside Alternative School in Marina del Rey,
Bravin led a campaign to place a student on the Los Angeles City
Board of Education. He was the first student to hold that position
in 1981 and then won re-election the following year.
It was there that he began to understand how policies are made
and began developing strong opinions about what shape those polices
should take, he said. But the experience had its disillusions.
"I was terribly frustrated at the end of my term on the board,"
he said. "Like a lot of young people, you think you know how it
should be and you just have to explain it, but you learn it’s not
that simple, that there are reasons why things are the way they
are. Some make sense and some don’t."
As an undergraduate at Harvard, Bravin steered clear of
involvement on any governance boards, focusing on his degree in
ancient history and his involvement in journalism.
"I had to prove that my identity was not solely wrapped up in
governmental and policy work," he said describing the importance
writing had to him, as he became editor of the Crimson at Harvard
and wrote a play for a local production.
It was after college, when he began meeting others who had gone
through the same disillusions with their attempts to affect
institutions, that he got back into working on policy
committees.
At UC Berkeley, as well as being a board member of the UC
Students Association, he sits on the board which oversees
Berkeley’s outreach program.
The student regent position is another way to help influence the
university whose future he has so much at stake in, he said. Far
from being just another line on his resume, he said, he sees this
as his opportunity to participate in forming new directions for the
university.
"I don’t need to prove anything to people in power," he said,
"or ingratiate myself to any structure. I don’t see this as a
stepping stone. It’s a tremendous honor and opportunity.
"This is a time in history when people think that the government
doesn’t matter, that community values are not worth the trouble,"
he said. "I certainly don’t believe that. It’s important to have
realistic expectations and to be ambitious as well."Comments to
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