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The search is on for UCLA’s next chancellor – or at least it will be, barring another delay by University of California officials in their announcement of the official search committee.

If all goes according to plan, by the end of today, UCLA will know who, exactly, will be on the group that interviews chancellor candidates, pares down the list, and ultimately hands off a recommendation to the UC Board of Regents.

It’s unfortunate that the over 38,000 UCLA students will only have two representatives on the committee – undergraduate student President Jenny Wood and graduate student President Jared Fox. It’s up to the both of them to effectively represent the concerns of their student constituents. And to do that they will have to temper some of their idealism with pragmatism.

After all, as great as it would be to have a chancellor who never allows student fees to be raised and boosts funding to outreach and retention efforts tenfold, that person will be next to impossible to find. But the student representatives can still balance what will likely be a technical discussion about who or what the next chancellor should be with some reasonable requests.

Probably one of the most important things from the perspective of the student body is the preservation of free-speech rights. This university’s current chancellor understands this; its future chancellor must as well. Chancellor Albert Carnesale once told The Bruin that he felt college administrators should “bend over backward in favor of free speech.”

Anyone who succeeds him should talk along a similar vein. Because as ugly as Meyerhoff Park’s shouting matches can become, they are ultimately part of living and learning in a college environment.

It would also be nice to have a chancellor who is willing to exert a little more political capital when it comes to advocacy. As the chief executive of one of the UC’s two flagship campuses, and the leader of one of the world’s most renowned public universities, the chancellor of UCLA wields a lot of potential power.

Carnesale chose to exert much of his influence on shoring up UCLA’s coffers and its reach in the community, and Campaign UCLA’s multi-billion dollar fundraising drive and the “UCLA in LA” program are evidence of this. These are worthy endeavors. But a chancellor who is willing to put as much time, effort and visibility into representing the concerns of students, staff and faculty to outside groups – from the regents to the U.S. Congress – would be better.

Ultimately, the task facing Fox and Wood is to make sure the student voice is heard on the committee. And that is exactly what they should look for in a new chancellor: attention to the student voice. A chancellor who goes beyond holding quarterly office hours and teaching a class every now and again would, at the very least, show that he or she is invested in the student community.

Both Fox and Wood said they have started to solicit opinions about the chancellor decision from undergraduates and graduate students. This is a positive step, and hopefully they will continue to gather student input as the process progresses. Because, if done right, their two voices can be over 38,000 strong.