UC Student Regent Matt Murray and UC Student Regent-designate Jodi Anderson held a Town Hall meeting on Feb. 9 to encourage UCSD students to apply for the 2005-06 UC student regent position and respond to questions about the position. UC student regents serve two-year terms on the UC Board of Regents, serving one year as the non-voting student regent-designate followed by one year as a full voting member of the Board of Regents. The student regent receives either a fee waiver or scholarship equal to his or her mandatory tuition for the two-year term, a furnished office on his or her campus and would be reimbursed for any travel expenses incurred while traveling to regents meetings.
“”One of the reasons that Jodi and I are here is to encourage folks like you all to apply to be the student regent,”” Murray said, pointing out that for nearly a decade almost all student regents have come from UC Berkeley or UCLA. “”We need student regents from somewhere else, and I think San Diego is a great place for them to be from.””
In order to be eligible, students must be in good standing at their campus and be enrolled in some capacity at the University of California for the next two years. Applicants must complete an application by Feb. 19 that, in addition to basic information, requires three references and short essays. After all applications have been submitted, a regional nominating committee will select approximately 18 students for initial interviews to be held March 6. UCSD applications would be reviewed by the Northern Regional Nominating Committee, which consists of eight representatives from UC Berkeley, UC Davis, UC San Francisco and UC Santa Cruz. From that pool of interviewees, the regional nominating commissions will select nine semifinalists, who will then be interviewed by the Board of Directors of the UC Student Association in April 2004. UCSA will then select three finalists, who the Regents’ special committee to select a student regent will interview in May 2004. The university would pay for any travel expenses.
“”The process itself sounds kind of long and convoluted Ö but it’s a tremendously valuable learning opportunity,”” Anderson said. “”We thought ëwhat are the chances that I’m going to be selected’ Ö but the great thing will be that I will learn a lot about policymaking that goes on at the university and the Board of Regents, and I’ll at least go away from the process having learned something valuable.””
Student regents attend the bi-monthly Regents meetings, held on the first Wednesday and Thursday of every other month. In addition, specific committees of the Board of Regents hold meetings during the months without full board meetings.
“”[The position is] completely a self-motivated thing,”” Murray said. “”The type of issues that you work on is pretty much at your discretion Ö To me, it’s a full-time job, and I take a reduced course load of two or three courses a semester.””
According to Anderson, taking the position validates all the extra work of having to attend Regents meetings and serving as a representative of the school.
“”For me, it’s worth the trade-off because it’s a pretty tremendous opportunity,”” Anderson said. “”I’ve been to every UC campus and not only been to the campus, but got to meet with students, staff, faculty, administrators and chancellors at many campuses. So the opportunity to learn was the trade-off for me.””