A different kind of student sit-in and a modest proposal

It may not be quite so much fun.

From the Daily Bruin today:

A total of three students will be able to sit on committees during the UC Board of Regents meeting next month, which some say is still not enough to fully represent the student voice. The newest student to join the discussion, Vanessa Garcia of UC San Diego, will attend the meeting as a student observer, a new position established by UC officials after receiving a request from the University of California Student Association, an activist coalition of UC students. Regents members and UC administrators hold committee meetings to help them decide on certain issues before they vote on policy. UC officials agreed to allow a student to sit in on a Board of Regents committee meeting and participate in the process to help regents vote on certain issues, Garcia said. The UCSA chooses which regents committee meeting it would like a student to attend and then nominates a student for the position, said UC spokeswoman Brooke Converse in an emailed statement. The students must receive approval from their respective regents committee to attend, Converse added...

Full story at http://dailybruin.com/2013/10/10/uc-regents-create-new-student-role/

A modest proposal for any student who gets to sit in on the Building and Grounds committee:  As campus capital project proposals for umpteen millions of dollars come up, you might ask how the committee can verify the costs and consider the alternatives without any independent review capacity.  And then you might ask how the committee plans to follow up after the buildings are completed, to see that they met their financial and other goals, again, without any independent review capacity.