The UC Board of Regents Committee on Finance approved the 32 percent midyear fee hike, with student regent Jesse Bernal casting the only vote against the proposal. Today, the UC Regents will vote to finalize this decision.
It was largely a symbolic gesture: The one student regent, representing more than 40,000 students, voted in opposition to the rest of the committee comprised of professionals, who may not have a direct or personal stake in the decision.
The preexisting system muffles and denies the student voice that is crucial in formulating solutions and affects those who do have a direct and personal stake in the issue.
This is the time we address the severe lack of representation within the Board of Regents ““ there is only one student, whose vote is essentially insolvent and ineffectual against 25 other voices.
Article IX Section 9 of the California Constitution, which contains the provisions for the formation and operations of the UC Regents, states that the representative must be limited to one “person enrolled as a student at a campus of the university for each regular academic term during his service as a member of the board.”
Furthermore, a subsection of Article IX Section 9 states: “Regents shall be able persons broadly reflective of the economic, cultural and social diversity of the state, including ethnic minorities and women.”
One student cannot represent nine distinct universities ““ nearly 250,000 students, a plethora of intellectual and academic priorities and the nation’s model public university system.
The position of the student representative, as outlined in the Constitution, seems like nothing more than a public relations move: a poor, inadequate attempt at including student opinion.
On Wednesday, Bernal valiantly presented his reasons for opposing the fee hikes.
Meanwhile, hundreds of voices clamored outside of Covel Commons, but only Bernal’s voice was heard inside, embodying the disconnect between the various viewpoints of the students of the UC and their one representative voice. There cannot be diversity of opinion in one voice.
That limitation, as outlined in the California Constitution regarding the Board of Regents, is highly anachronistic, mentioning dates as far back as 1974. In the last 30 years, California has drastically changed, and so has the UC system.
According to the California census, the state’s population was at about 17 million then; now, it has nearly doubled to about 36 million. Concordantly, the number of UC campuses has also grown.
Despite these striking shifts in demographics, student representation remains at one vote.
It is unrealistic to govern the current situation with defunct guidelines.
Regardless of the outcome of today’s vote, it is clear that among the distressed multitudes, only one was given a voice ““ and that one was rendered in vain.