Tracy Davis, a UCLA graduate student, was nominated to be the 2001-2002 student regent by a committee of the UC Board of Regents. Before coming here as a graduate student in education, she worked for CNN and attended UCLA for her undergraduate studies. Davis answered some questions about her position July 27.
Q: Do you think having two students on the 26-member board adequately represents UC students? A: Two students is actually more than they’ve ever had before. In the past it’s always just been one. Is it enough? I think it depends on the character of the person and who’s willing to listen. I think you could have 100 people on the board and if only one person spoke, then in terms of the total numbers it wouldn’t really make a difference. It’s really dependent on how vested those two people are and how willing to listen and willing to not jump to conclusion the other people on the board are. Q: Do you think you’re that type of person? A: I think I am. (Note: In previous years only one student sat on the board for most meetings. Due to a procedural change, Davis will sit as a non-voting member for most of the current student regent’s term.) Q: What do you think of the regents you’ve met so far? They are all extremely interesting, educated people. They all have their own passions. They didn’t get involved in the board just to do it. They definitely have – I don’t want to define it as an agenda – but they definitely have their own interests, their own passions and their own reasons for why they believe they are a regent. And they all have different ideas as to what the UC is and what it should be to the residents of California.
Q: What do you think are some of the issues that are going to face you during your term as a voting member? A: If Tidal Wave 2 is going to be what the statisticians say it’s going to be we’re going to need to start thinking about capital projects and growth on all our campuses. Where’s the best place to put money? We’re trying to build this Merced campus, is that really the best place? Given that Riverside and Santa Cruz are going to be asked to double in size, should we really be putting our money there because they’re going to be dealing with more students than the Merced campus right off the bat? The issue of Proposition 209 and SP-1 and SP-2 are big with everybody. I don’t seem to be able to talk to anybody about the UC without the issue of admissions coming up. How do you best work with affirmative action? Who are we here to serve as a university? What is our promise to the residents of California? And, how do we hope to reach that goal? It’s a hard one. Prop. 209 is the law of the land. It was voted in by California residents, and as much as maybe the faculty the staff and the students horribly disagree with Prop. 209, the fact is, unless it’s overturned and we have a revote on Prop. 209, that’s the law of the land. There’s not a lot the regents can do other than possibly overturning SP-1 and SP-2 unless the residents of California, maybe led by students, overturn Prop. 209.
(Note: Tidal Wave 2 refers to the projected influx of 60,000 students expected to enroll in the next 10 years. SP-1 and SP-2 ended the use of affirmative action in admissions and hiring throughout the UC system. Proposition 209 ended the use of affirmative action throughout the state.)
Q: What do you think should be done about the question of affirmative action? A: I think anyone who says that opportunities are equal is fooling themselves. I’ve worked with too many people, too many students, from too many different life backgrounds to be able to say that everyone should be able to get a 1,350 on their SAT. Some students are just trying to live, trying to make it. The next question from a lot of people is do we need to save everyone? Is it the goal of the university to cater to everyone? Well no, it’s in the Masterplan for Higher Education that we’re for the top 12.5 percent of graduating seniors in the state. But we need to make sure, and we need to understand, that education is more than just books. It’s outside the classroom, and so much of outside the classroom is about learning from different people and understanding that diversity is a very important component – diversity however you define it. Diversity in backgrounds, diversity in experiences, diversity in majors. People go to the UC rather than maybe going to MIT or CalTech because they want a breadth of majors, they want to specifically focus on one thing. They chose the UC for a reason. Usually the university can offer them a breadth of experiences and without diversity we’re cutting ourselves down on that experience.
Q: What are some of your ideas in terms of mitigating Tidal Wave 2? A: It’s really going to be a capital issue. I see partially having to balance the excellence we so pursue at the University of California, and really trying to think of creative ways to tackle growing enrollment numbers. There’s already been discussion of – I know students always laugh about this – finding ways to get them off the campus. To send them abroad and to send them to D.C., which is hysterical, the best way to deal with students is to send them away? But, really trying to once again define ourselves, really trying to figure out curriculum wise. How is our GE curriculum designed? Is it really for the benefit of the student? Are we kind of saying,“well they have to take history and they have to take math and it’s good for them.” And, I am a huge proponent of community service and having service learning and the fact that that will increase the number of units per course.
Q: All the other UC campuses currently have diversity requirements, would you support a university-wide diversity requirement? A: I would definitely support a requirement for something like a multicultural diversity requirement at the GE level. That can be in multiple fields though. It wouldn’t be to require all students to take the exact same class. Part of what is great about the university is that there are so many options. It’s not saying, “Everyone needs to take this one class on diversity.” But really opening it up to issues of women’s studies, gender issues, African American studies, Asian American studies. The fact that we add that into our GE curriculum and what that says to the public and to students who choose to come here is that we value this. You’re not adding it just to add it, you’re believing in it because you think it’s a good thing and studies have shown that courses in diversity and ethnic studies increase students awareness on their campus and increase their satisfaction in college.
Q: What do you think you’d like to accomplish, if nothing else, during your time on the board? A: I’m really big on getting the word out. I want to make sure that all students, whether they’re high school students, college students, or graduate students feel welcome at the university. Especially with SP-1 and SP-2, so many students don’t feel welcome anymore and I think it’s really easy to point the finger sometimes and say, “The regents did it.” Yes they did, they did create SP-1 and SP-2, but the residents of California by a kind of overwhelming majority voted for Prop. 209. I want to make sure that, number one, people have the information they need – whether that involves increasing the amount of information that’s given to students at freshman orientation at all of our campuses, or changing the way that we do outreach – but really making sure that we’re not so high and mighty that we forget about the fact that we’re really catering to all these people. There are 5-year-olds that are walking on one of our campuses today, that have a dream and we need to make sure we are following through on our promise to the residents of California.
Q: Is there anything you would want the UC students to do? A: I would ask of them to prepare themselves for the next five to 10 years – it’s going to be a tough time on all the campuses. No student loves the fact that half their campus is torn up and under construction. Think to the future and realize that maybe it’s not going to be so fun walking through the dirt everyday. And, get involved. My favorite part of school is what’s outside the classroom. And I would love to hear different people’s view and I would love to hear what they think and what their big concerns are. Compiled by Timothy Kudo, Daily Bruin Senior Staff.