SAN FRANCISCO ““ While September’s UC Board of
Regents meeting was the last one for outgoing president Richard
Atkinson, it was the first for regents Dolores Huerta and Jodi
Anderson, the two most recently appointed board members.
Gov. Gray Davis appointed Huerta, a well-known activist who
worked alongside César Chávez in advocating for
farmer’s rights, to the board on Sept. 10. Anderson, a
graduate student in higher education at UCLA, was appointed by the
regents in May as the new student regent designate for
2004-2005.
Both new regents were thrown right into the thick of things as
the board discussed the future and the implications of the state
budget crisis, a budget crisis that has already led to $410 million
in cuts to the University of California and will likely mean
further, deeper cuts this year.
Huerta and Anderson spent most of the meeting familiarizing
themselves with the regents board and its procedures, and both said
they were already developing a sense of what their priorities would
be in the future.
Huerta said she planned to appeal to the common Californian,
working hard to increase public awareness of the UC’s
educational mission. She added that she was afraid too much of the
public perceives the university to be an elitist system.
“I’m not sure that everyone in California realizes
how important this institution is, and how much it needs to be
supported, especially financially,” she said.
Huerta also said she would be looking hard at the various ways
the UC could cope with the budget problems it will likely face this
year. Proposals for how to deal with the budget include raising
student fees beyond the 30 percent they were increased this summer,
curbing enrollment growth, and cutting non-instructional
programs.
Though she said she would have to do more research on the
matter, Huerta said she favors trying to stretch the UC’s
already existing resources, such as having faculty teach additional
classes, rather than cutting or raising fees. The regents will
discuss their options further at their November meeting.
Anderson, meanwhile, joined the regents’ table after the
board confirmed her on Wednesday. As the student regent designate,
Anderson will work alongside current Student Regent Matt Murray,
but will not have voting power.
As a UCLA student, Anderson said she wanted to take advantage of
the fact that she is primarily based in Southern California while
Murray, an undergraduate at UC Berkeley, is primarily in Northern
California.
“Hopefully, that will make us as the two student regents
more accessible (to students),” she said.
Like Murray and his predecessor Dexter Ligot-Gordon, Anderson
said she would oppose any budget measures restricting access to the
university. She also called the discussion the regents will have in
November on the negative repercussions of budget cuts a “step
in the right direction.”
It was her first meeting, but Anderson seemed to be adjusting
well to her surroundings, as evidenced when one of the regents
approached her and joked that she reminded him of his daughter at
Georgetown University.
“So far it’s going well,” she said with a
laugh.