Students can now apply to be student representatives to the governing board of the University of California.
Applications for the student regent and student advisor positions on the UC Board of Regents opened early December. Any student enrolled at a UC campus can apply for the student regent position, and undergraduates can apply for the student advisor position.
Students can apply for either position or both on the same application.
After the regents appoint a new student regent, he or she serves as the regent-designate for one year. During a student’s time as a regent-designate, he or she can sit on committees and participate in policy discussions, but cannot vote. The student’s one-year term as a regent begins July 1 the year after he or she is appointed.
The student regent is reimbursed for expenses related to attending board and committee meetings. All mandatory University fees and tuition are waived for the student regent during the academic years in which he or she serves as a regent-designate and as a board member.
Undergraduate students can also apply to be the student advisor to the board for the 2017-2018 academic year. The UC Regents created the student advisor position in January after the board passed a resolution proposed by former student Regent Avi Oved.
Oved said the position would allow for more diverse expression of student issues.
[Related: UC Board of Regents adds nonvoting student adviser position]
The student advisor will not have voting power, but will make recommendations to the board on issues that concern the student population. The student advisor will also only have access to open-session regents meetings.
Claire Doan, UC spokesperson, said in an email statement that the student advisor is to be from a different student population than the student regent. Because student Regent-designate Paul Monge is a law student, only undergraduate students can apply to the student advisor position at this time.
She added it is unclear on how many or on which committees the advisor will sit. The proposal creating the student advisor position said the advisor would sit on committees the student regent and student regent-designate do not sit, but the regents restructured their committees in July.
The current student regent is Marcela Ramirez, a graduate student at UC Riverside.
Applications for both the student regent and student advisor positions are due Feb. 26.