December 1, 2003

UCSC is looking for a few good Student Regent candidates

Student Regents have all come from other UC campuses

By Louise Donahue

UCSC wants a place at the table—for its very own Student Regent. Since the 1970s, the University of California Board of Regents has included one Student Regent. Students from every other UC campus except UC Merced have served, but never a student from UCSC.

“Let's make our campus proud and join together in accomplishing this important goal of making the next Student Regent a UCSC student,” Chancellor Greenwood said in a letter to the campus community.

The chancellor noted that UCSC’s Career Center is spearheading an effort to encourage fellow students, faculty, and staff to help identify students who may be interested in seeking the post.

Applications and related materials are available at the Career Center and will soon be available online.

The Career Center’s Student Regent recruitment coordinator Cyndi Edinger, career adviser Joan Walker, and UCSC Writing Program lecturer Donald Rothman will hold orientations and workshops in January to let students learn more about the process and hone their application skills.

In February, Career Center advisers and staff will be available to review applicants’ resumes and application materials, which include essays, and to discuss interviewing techniques.

Students will have a chance to learn firsthand about the position from current Student Regent Matthew Murray of UC Berkeley and Regent-designate Jodi Anderson of UCLA when they visit campus January 30. The two will meet students at 3 p.m. in Conference Room D of the Bay Tree Building. Refreshments will be served.

The Student Regent is a full voting member of the UC Board of Regents, attending all meetings of the board and its committees. The Student Regent serves a one-year term after serving one year as a Student Regent-designate. The person selected this academic year for the post would begin serving as a Regent-designate in September 2004.

Applicants must be students who will still be registered at a UC institution when they take office, and also must be in good academic standing. The successful student candidate will have expenses covered and all tuition and fees—including parking—waived while serving as Regent and Regent-designate—a total of two years.

Regents’ duties include overseeing the financial management of the University of California, its investments, and its property holdings as well as appointing the president of the University, the 10 campus chancellors, and the directors of the major Department of Energy research laboratories.

Applications for Student Regent are winnowed down by the UC Regional Commissions, made up of undergraduate and graduate study body presidents from each UC campus, and the UC Student Association, made up of at least one voting student representative from each UC campus. Three finalists are then selected, and a committee of the Board of Regents makes the final choice.

“I look for students who are interested in leadership opportunities,” said Edinger of the Career Center, part of Student Affairs. “It’s a chance to learn all the inner workings of the university system and be able to contribute on a policy level.”

Student Regent applications are not due until February 19, but Edinger is suggesting applicants get an early start on the lengthy application.

“It would be great for UC Santa Cruz,” said Edinger, a ’94 Stevenson alumna. “We could finally bring what UCSC has to offer to the table.”

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