Back in April of last year, we noted that there was a proposal percolating in the legislature to create a second student regent.* Currently, there is one student regent although briefly there was also a non-voting student adviser. When that adviser position went away, there was a move to put on the ballot a constitutional amendment creating a second student regent.
When the student regent position was created back in the 1970s, the Academic Senate declined the opportunity to have a voting faculty regent. The faculty does have a non-voting representative. However, if the second student regent becomes a real possibility, it will be time to reconsider that now-very-old decision.
From the Bruin: A recently proposed amendment to the state constitution would require the University of California Board of Regents to have two student regents with voting power, which would double the amount of student representation on the board.
Senate Constitutional Amendment 5, introduced by Sen. Steve Glazer on April 15, would mandate that a second voting student be added to the UC Board of Regents by amending Section 9 of Article IX in the state constitution, which lays out the responsibilities and powers held by the regents. Currently, there is one student on the UC Board of Regents with a vote and another student, who is considered in training, who does not have a vote. SCA 5 would give this trainee a vote, eliminating the mandatory training year.
Students have unique perspectives and provide day-to-day feedback about their universities, Glazer said in an emailed statement. “Students are the ones who are directly affected by decisions that the UC Board of Regents make,” Glazer said in the statement. “It’s critical that they are given a stronger voice to have an impact on what the Board decides.”
SCA 5 was passed in the California Senate on Jan. 26 but still needs to be passed by the California State Assembly in order for it to appear on the general ballot, according to the state constitution. If the Assembly passes it and Californians vote in favor of it, it will be officially ratified, and a second voting student regent will be added to the board. Joshua Lewis, a student at UC Berkeley and the chair of the UC Student Association, said it is a priority for the UCSA that student voices are present on the board. Lewis said he worked with other members of UCSA last year to get SCA 5 drafted, workshopped and ready for the floor.
He and others in UCSA first tried to initiate a conversation with the regents last year about adding another voting student to the board, but they were unsuccessful, Lewis said. Lewis added that the idea was put on pause until Glazer’s office reached out and said the senator wanted to do something that would help students in California...
Full story at https://dailybruin.com/2022/02/09/amendment-to-add-2nd-voting-student-member-to-uc-board-of-regents-progresses.
===
*http://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2021/04/time-to-think-again-about-faculty-regent.html.
No comments:
Post a Comment