Against a backdrop of financial turmoil for the University of California, the UC Board of Regents is set to announce its selected nominee for the 2010-11 student regent this week.

Whoever is chosen from the three finalists will serve a one-year term as a voting member of the board, participating in policy decisions and serving as a liaison between students and the university.

"The position is unique because it brings a perspective to the board that would be absent without it," said current student Regent D'Artagnan Scorza. "It represents a perspective that sensitizes other regents to issues that affect students."

Scorza, a UCLA graduate student whose term ends July 1, has voted against some of the board's major decisions this year, including the move to curtail fall enrollment by 2,300 students and last month's approval of an almost 10-percent student fee hike.

In July, he will be replaced by Jesse Bernal, current student regent-designate and a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara. Bernal has spent the last year participating-but not voting-in regents meetings to prepare for his role of representing more than 220,000 UC students.

According to Scorza, the appointment of the student regent has been delayed this year due to the regents' involvement in state legislative hearings concerning the current budget crisis.

In light of these financial woes, next year's student regent-designate will be crucial in determining the university's future, said Jesse Cheng, a junior at UC Irvine and a finalist for the 2010-11 position.

"The university is at a crossroads," said Cheng, the only undergraduate student in the running. "The decisions we make in the next few years will determine the model the university will have for several decades."

Since the student regent position was created in 1975, 16 graduate students and 19 undergraduates have held the position.

This year, Cheng served as co-chair of UC Irvine's Asian Pacific Student Association and chair of the Student Fee Advisory Committee.

"And that's me," he said. "However, it's important to realize that none of these qualifications really prepare you ... for the complexity that is involved in running the university."

Next month, the full board will vote on the candidate who is recommended by a special regents committee.

Lucero Chavez, who serves on the committee as president of the UC Student Association, said the UCSA has kept strong relationships with the student regent for the past two years.

"They really tried this year to work on joint efforts with us. We don't always agree, but we do try to communicate with each other," she said.

Also vying for the position are Miguel Lopez, a graduate student at UCLA who studies higher education and served on his campus's Student Fee Advisory Committee this year, and Carrie Carmody, a graduate student at UC Irvine who spent 25 years in retail management before completing her undergraduate education.

"We need to somehow convince the Californian taxpayer that the hope for our future rests on these universities," Carmody said. "We need to launch a marketing campaign to get people to recognize the value of higher education once again."

Carmody, who is the president of the UC Irvine Associated Graduate Students and a mother of two, said one challenge she faces is the perception that she is over-qualified for the job.

"While I may not be a traditional student, I think I am very good at articulating student views and advocating on behalf of student needs," she said. "It's not as easy to marginalize me."

Tags: UC BOARD OF REGENTS