The University of California’s student regent, Dexter Ligot-Gordon, came to UCSD’s Cross Cultural Center on Oct. 11 to talk to students about their concerns for the year, including the Racial Privacy Initiative.
Guardian
The UC student regent position is filled every year by a UC student selected by the University of California Student Association and the Board of Regents out of a pool of applicants. The student is considered a UC Regent with the same voting rights as any other regent. The UC Board of regents is the policy-making board for the University of California; it reviews and designs policy for all 10 UC campuses.
Ligot-Gordon is both a regent and a full-time student. He is a fifth-year student attending UC Berkeley. He became a full-voting regent in July and will continue his post through June. As a student regent, Ligot-Gordon said he serves in two capacities.
“”The official capacity of the student regent is to serve as a regent,”” Ligot-Gordon said. “”Unofficially, I can advocate for issues within the university in a very public forum.””
This year, the major issue that Ligot-Gordon said he will be addressing is the RPI, which will appear on the March 2004 California ballot. The initiative, if passed, would prohibit state institutions, including the University of California, from collecting any race, ethnicity or national origin data.
Ligot-Gordon said that he will be working to inform students on this issue throughout the year.
“”My goal this year is to educate students about the issue,”” Ligot-Gordon said.
Ligot-Gordon opposes the initiative because “”the voters of California are being asked to make themselves ignorant of problems and of our greatest asset, which is our diversity,”” he said.
The problem with RPI, according to Ligot-Gordon, is not having access to data.
“”If we can’t collect the data, we can’t analyze the data. We are forced to ignore the problems and we can’t design programs to fix them,”” Ligot-Gordon said.
The issue will be addressed during the year by the Board of Regents. The initiative itself was proposed by UC Regent Ward Connerly. Ligot-Gordon said that because the initiative originated from a regent, what the university does will be important.
“”People will watch what the University of California does,”” Ligot-Gordon said.
Because this issue is highly controversial, Ligot-Gordon hopes to see debates on all 10 UC campuses addressing the issue.
While at UCSD, Ligot-Gordon also spoke with students about expanding the University of California’s curriculum to include Filipino-American studies. He is working on this issue with students not only at UCSD, but across the UC campuses.
Student Regent profile:
Name: Dexter Ligot-Gordon
School: UC Berkeley
Year: fifth year
Major: Political Economy of Industrial Societies
Projects for the year: Educate UC students on the Racial Privacy Initiative and bring Filipino-American studies to UC campuses.
Committee member: Grounds and buildings, finance and investments
