As part of a pilot program, the UC Student Association will nominate three students each year to act as “student observers” for the UC Regents. These students will participate in the regents’ committee meetings to lend student perspective to discussion. The UCSA will place the observers on three of the board’s committees.

“The big goal is to make sure student voices are being heard,” said UCSA President Kareem Aref. “With this extra opportunity, students will be able to get into those spaces so the regents never act without student input.”

UC San Diego student Vanessa Garcia is a prospective observer and has been nominated by the UCSA for confirmation by the regents. The board will consider her nomination at its November meeting, according to UCSA Communications Director Bridget Botelho. Aref said he is unsure whether the other two observers will be confirmed in November as well. Student observers will change with each school year.

The regents have had students observers in the past. The Committee on Investments has had a student observer for the past two years, according to UC spokesperson Brooke Converse. This year, however, marks the start of an official student observer pilot program — a project that is the result of collaboration between the UCSA, UC Student Affairs and the Office of the Secretary and Chief of Staff to the Regents, Converse said.

Aref said the additional three observer positions were modeled on those positions. He said the California Constitution prohibits the addition of student regents to the board, which led advocates for greater student representation to seek alternative avenues to gaining access to the university’s top decision-makers.

The three student observers will join UC Student Regent Cinthia Flores and Student Regent-designate Sadia Saifuddin as student representatives to the body.

“Overall, the biggest impact students are going to have as observers is to contextualize issues as they relate to students, and that’s a very effective way of changing conversations,” Flores said. “The board does recognize the importance of the student opinion.”

ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai said there is still more to be done to guarantee student access to the regents.

“Student presence and student voice should be the norm,” Mecklai said in an email. “We need to continue to be critical of how we can negotiate more access for students in the Regents, and continue to look at ways to encourage Regental reform and improved student representation at the systemwide level.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Kevin Foote/File

UC Berkeley placed fifth in a recently published set of rankings meant to reflect President Barack Obama’s proposed criteria for measuring college affordability and access.

The rankings, released by the organization Affordable Colleges Online, are a response to the college-rating system Obama outlined in August. The plan seeks to link federal funding for institutions of higher education to assessments of individual schools based on average tuition, graduation rates and the number of students receiving federal aid, among other measures.

Affordable Colleges Online’s rankings analyzed tuition and fees, graduation rates, student loan default rates, student services and the average starting salary of graduates to determine the top 100 public colleges that may receive a high rating under Obama’s proposed program. Other UC campuses ranked highly as well: UCLA ranked 10th, UC San Diego came in at 22nd and UC Irvine ranked 24th. All UC undergraduate campuses except UC Merced made the top 100.

Wes Ricketts, vice president and general manager of Affordable Colleges Online, said he was not surprised to see many UC campuses on the list.

“The UC system gets a leg up when you factor in the return on investment,” he said. “Those alumni tend to earn more money in the short term and the long term compared to other colleges.”

UC Berkeley ranked below the University of Virginia, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and the College of William Mary in the rankings but boasted the largest postgraduate starting salary of the five.

The rankings analyzed postgraduation starting salaries from data compiled by Payscale.com, a site that collects data on how much graduates of various universities make. According to the site, UC Berkeley graduates’ typical starting salary is $54,700.

In response to Obama’s proposals for higher education, former UC president Mark Yudof said last month that the average debt of UC students upon graduation is about $7,000 less than the national average, which the White House estimates to be $26,000.

“When going to a really competitive, top-rank university such as Berkeley, yes, affordability is a key factor,” said UC spokesperson Dianne Klein. “But our systemwide goal is not based on the lowest price. Ours is about financial access — we  focus on ensuring that students can afford a college education.”

UC Student Regent Cinthia Flores said Obama’s proposals and the subsequent rankings by Affordable Colleges Online indicate a growing need for the UC system to focus on reducing students’ reliance on loans and ensuring their workplace success.

“I wouldn’t say that I disagree with our ranking, but the introduction of this plan is going to force the UC to look at those issues, and I am very happy about that,” she said.

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Ariel D. Hayat/Staff

UC President Janet Napolitano met twice with some of her staunchest critics Tuesday in an effort to address universitywide student concerns about her appointment and to build trust and cooperation.

The meetings, held at the UC Office of the President in Oakland, were preempted by 17 UC Berkeley students protesting Napolitano’s appointment on the basis of her record on deportation of undocumented immigrants during her stint as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security. Inside the building, Napolitano met with Student Regent Cinthia Flores, Student Regent-designate Sadia Saifuddin and 10 other UC students.

The students Napolitano met with were part of the Statewide Multicultural Student Coalition, a universitywide group of undocumented students and their supporters that formed in response to Napolitano’s appointment. The meeting was intended to address their list of demands and create an atmosphere of respect.

The demands called for reform of the university’s policies regarding undocumented immigrants, including limiting the use of university resources to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement and allowing undocumented students to work on campus.

The coalition also requested that Napolitano prohibit the use of riot police during protests. Andrea Gordillo, a UC Irvine senior and a representative of the coalition, said this request also affected the protesters demonstrating outside the meeting because both groups have similar concerns, such as a lack of diversity among UC faculty members and students.

“I know I speak for 11 million undocumented immigrants,” said protester David Douglass, a fourth-year UC Berkeley student who ran for ASUC president last year as a member of the Defend Affirmative Action Party. “We want to move forward with presenting the demands of the student movement and move forward to demand full citizenship rights.”

In response to the students’ grievances, Napolitano said in a press release that she will assign staff to explore the various issues discussed in the meeting and that she intends to take steps to expand access to financial aid, ensure sound campus police practices and help first-generation students and those of color succeed at UC schools.

Flores and Saifuddin met separately with Napolitano earlier in the day to discuss specific policy issues, such as increasing federal financial aid to students and Napolitano’s support for a program Flores initiated that would help California high school seniors apply to UC schools and aid them throughout their time at the university.

UC spokesperson Dianne Klein added that the UC administration will continue “robust financial aid policies” and expand them, noting the recently launched Promise for Education fundraising campaign as a means to that end.

“The fact that President Napolitano chose to meet with these students on her second day on the job demonstrates the importance she places on dialogue and cooperation,” Klein said. “Students spoke of their experiences and concerns, and the president listened. She did not automatically rule out any of their demands — she will consider them all.”

Both Gordillo and Flores said they are “cautiously optimistic” about the results of the most recent meeting.

“We didn’t get any concrete answers or tangible solutions, but we got a promise that she will look thoroughly into the proposals,” Gordillo said, adding that the coalition was promised a follow-up meeting in a couple of months.

Napolitano said in the press release that she will continue to work closely with the UC Board of Regents as she visits various campuses in the initial months of her presidency.

Contact Michelaina Johnson and Shannon Carroll at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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Carli Baker/Senior Staff

For the first time in five years, Mark Yudof will wake up Monday a free man. No longer will the outgoing UC president have to deal with angry accusations of screwing over students or unfairly bargaining with unions or ignoring the cries of protesters.

No longer will he be responsible for overseeing a $24.1 billion budget or managing a massive bureaucracy that supports more than 220,000 students and 170,000 faculty and staff.

After presiding over the UC system during five of the most tumultuous years of its history, Yudof stepped down Sunday to make way for former U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. His departure signals the end of what may be the most significant chapter in Yudof’s decades-long career as an educator and administrator.

From blue collar to top-floor office

The president’s office is on the 12th floor of the UC headquarters building, an unassuming tower in the middle of Downtown Oakland where system administrators oversee programs that affect the broader UC system.

Yudof’s office is spacious and simple. Maps and certificates hang on the wall behind the desk, a traditional wooden worktable with a few colonial touches, including an hourglass, a quill feather and an inkwell.

But before the big desk and the colonial touches, Yudof was entirely blue collar.

The son of an electrician, Yudof completed his undergraduate education in just three years at the University of Pennsylvania and worked part time to pay for school, something he said has helped him better relate to the average worker.

Many of his detractors, however, may not be aware of his humble past. During an hourlong interview with The Daily Californian, Yudof recalled meeting with a group of union representatives who accused him of not understanding the struggles of working a physically demanding job.

“I looked at them and I said, ‘You know, I think I do understand, because when I went to undergraduate school at the University of Pennsylvania, I pushed gurneys for three years,’” Yudof said. “Otherwise, I would not have been able to afford to be there.”

After graduating, Yudof practiced constitutional law for much of the late 1960s and 1970s. He worked with the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund and represented professors who he thought unfairly had their First Amendment rights curbed.

In 1971, he began teaching law at the University of Texas at Austin, where he spent the next 26 years in teaching and administrative positions. For the last 16 years, Yudof has led the universities of Minnesota, Texas and California.

Students “immediately assume if you’re in my job you must be someone who comes from a rich, hoity-toity-type family,” Yudof said. “Not true. I wish they’d know that.”

Tenure in office

In June 2008 Yudof stepped into an office that had been fraught with problems. His predecessor, Robert Dynes, announced his resignation in 2007, two years after it came to light that millions had been spent on extra pay and perks for administrators. Then, shortly after entering the position, Yudof was handed the first in a series of massive state budget cuts to the UC system.

“I knew we were in an economic downturn — I understood that,” Yudof said. “But I’m not a great prognosticator. We lost a billion dollars, and all of a sudden we’re bleeding.”

As budgets were slashed, tuition for Californians rose from a little more than $7,000 in 2008 to more than $12,000 today, and students throughout the UC system protested en masse.

Yudof said he harbors no ill will toward the protesters. However, impeding a public body such as the UC Board of Regents from meeting represents a lack of civility, he said.

“The real narrative is, you have the greatest public university in the world reacting to a billion-dollar reduction in their appropriation,” Yudof said. “And that we’re not building rock-climbing walls, and we’re not paying the top salaries to chancellors.”

Still, deconstructing what Yudof calls the “grand narrative” — the idea that the UC system is prohibitively expensive for poor students and that the administrative Office of the President is overrun with unnecessary bureaucracy — has been a challenge.

Yudof’s colleagues praised the job he did as president. Bruce Varner, chair of the UC Board of Regents, said Yudof helped increase efficiency and build an appropriate relationship with the board.

“In one word, he stabilized things,” Varner said. “At the end of the day, he’s a very caring leader and always cared about the students and their welfare.”

Even as tuition has soared, financial aid programs have expanded. In 2009 Yudof oversaw the implementation of the Blue and Gold opportunity plan for lower-income undergraduate students. At the time, the plan ensured that most undergraduates eligible for financial aid whose families earn less than $60,000 annually paid nothing in tuition. Today, the cap has expanded to include families whose income is below $80,000.

Former UC Berkeley chancellor Robert Birgeneau, who stepped down in June, said that the campus tried to minimize student debt and maximize accessibility and that Yudof’s efforts helped with that process.

“I think students who don’t necessarily fully appreciate this were very well served by him during his time,” Birgeneau said.

Challenges and criticism

Still, UC Student Regent Cinthia Flores said she would have appreciated a more thorough investigation into how to save money and raise revenue before the regents raised tuition. Additionally, Flores said, she wished there had been a better avenue for students to share their input on closing the budget shortfall.

The budget wasn’t Yudof’s only challenge. The UC Student Health Insurance Plan, the university’s attempt to have a systemwide health plan for all 10 UC campuses, experienced massive changes after it was discovered that the program was carrying a deficit of more than $50 million. Yudof said he hopes students will not have to pay for what he says are past actuarial errors.

Retaining top faculty has been difficult as well. According to Yudof’s State of the UC report from May, faculty salaries lag an average of 11 percent behind comparator institutions. Earlier this year, USC lured away two prominent neuroscientists — and their research funding — from cross-town rival UCLA, for example.

Attempts at tackling other challenges have seen mixed results. Yudof said the financing model for higher education is broken, and one of his efforts to fix the flawed model, online courses, has failed to catch on as he had hoped. “An Introduction to Information,” for example, one of a handful of online courses offered at UC Berkeley last fall, saw its enrollment drop nearly 25 percent over the course of the semester.

Yudof said he thought faculty and student opposition prevented online classes from catching on faster.

Labor relations, too, have been a challenge. Although eight unions have agreed to pension reforms, a union representing health care and service workers, AFSCME 3299, has yet to reach a deal on a new contract with the UC system. The university announced Tuesday that after months of negotiations, it will implement its latest proposal without agreement from the union.

“It’s an assault on collective bargaining,” said Kathryn Lybarger, president of AFSCME 3299. “It’s an attack on the workers that make the university run. I don’t think we’ve been in a worse place than we are today.”

The legacy

Even with these challenges, Yudof says he hopes over time that his problematic “grand narrative” will clear.

“What I was trying to do was provide virtually a free education for as many students as possible,” Yudof said, “but those who could afford to pay, to charge them more. And all that got lost in the grand narrative.”

Mitchell Handler covers higher education. Contact him at mhandler@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @mitchellhandler.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that UC tuition is more than $15,000 for the current academic year and was more than $8,900 in 2008. In fact, base-level UC tuition for resident undergraduates is $12,192 for the current academic year and was $7,126 for the 2008-2009 year, not including campus-specific fees and the cost of the university-run health insurance plan.

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Jacob Brown/Staff

SAN FRANCISCO — The UC Board of Regents launched a fundraising effort at its Wednesday meeting that asks students, celebrities and UC officials to solicit friends and families for donations that would go toward UC undergraduate scholarships. 

Dubbed the Promise for Education, the campaign encourages individuals to use social media to collect these donations in exchange for completing a given task, or promise.

Gov. Jerry Brown, for instance, has pledged to host a lunch with a student from each UC campus in exchange for a $10,000 donation from the public.

These promises — and the price tags that accompany them — are advertised on the fundraiser’s website, where people can donate money toward various promises. The fundraiser, which launched Wednesday and will run through Oct. 31, is a crowd-funding effort that UC Regent Sherry Lansing said “has never been done before.”

The campaign’s website had around 200 pledges, which range from mundane to absurd, by midday Wednesday.

UC Davis student Bradley Bottoms pledged to wear a cow costume for an entire week if he meets his goal of $1,500 in donations. Jamie Foxx said he will rap a song impersonating President Barack Obama, former President Bill Clinton and Monique from the movie “Precious” in exchange for $20,000 in donations.

Lansing, who helped spearhead the Promise for Education effort, said at the meeting that she hopes the fundraiser will broaden scholarship availability.

Last year, UC undergraduates received close to $700 million in financial aid from the university and from private donations, according to David Alcocer, the university’s director of financial aid. Donations given as part of the Promise for Education will add to this pot. 

In an effort to expand these scholarship funds, Lansing said that the fundraiser is meant to attract donations of all sizes — even $1 and $5 contributions.

The university has seen a number of large contributions so far. The program has received about $900,000 in pledges and donations. According to Daniel Dooley, the university’s vice president for external relations, Bank of America and the Entertainment Industry Foundation both pledged $100,000 to kick off the fundraiser. The biggest pledge thus far comes from the family of a single donor, Abraham Trop, who died last year but left money to the university in his will. The family donated $400,000 to the campaign. 

David Kirp, a professor at UC Berkeley’s Goldman School of Public Policy who specializes in higher education, said the new fundraiser indicates the depth of the university’s need.

“Promise to Education is both ingenious and dispiriting — ingenious, because it’s a new way to capitalize on social media; dispiriting, because it shows the extraordinary measures that a great public university must take in order provide a world-class education,” he said in an email.

Still, some take issue with the style of fundraising.

Student Regent Cinthia Flores said at the meeting that some students have expressed concern that the fundraiser is a “backhanded” way to solicit donations to the university. But she said she is certain that the campaign will both raise funds and solidify the relationship between donors and the university.

“Sometimes students were apprehensive about this program, saying, ‘Why are we going to ask students to support other students?’ ” Flores said. “But seeing this (campaign) come to realization … I’ve seen the support that’s behind it.”

She pledged to dress as Superman for an entire day if she reaches a $1,000 donation goal.

Angela Sanchez, a UCLA graduate who aims to raise $3,000 for scholarships by pledging to host a 24-hour “magic marathon,” said she sees the fundraiser as a chance for student advocacy.

“California is a state that’s rife with debt,” Sanchez said. “Until we can find some kind of alleviation, the best resource we’re going to have is our community.”

Libby Rainey is the lead higher education reporter. Contact her at lrainey@dailycal.org and follow her on Twitter @rainey_l.

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Nathaniel Solley/Staff

Gov. Jerry Brown has yet to fill five empty seats on the UC Board of Regents, three of which have already been vacant for more than a year.

Currently, the board consists of 13 UC Regents, but with two members’ terms due to expire in March 2014, Brown may need to fill at least one seat, needed for an emergency quorum, in the coming year.

A quorum of nine regents is required for a regular regents meeting, and a quorum of 12 is required for an emergency session. One of Brown’s duties that largely impacts the UC system is appointing regents and selecting applicants to be confirmed by the California State Assembly and the state Senate.

In March, two seats opened up after the terms of former UC regents Leslie Schilling and Monica Lozano ended. The previous three seats have been empty for more than a year since former UC regents George Marcus’ and Odessa Johnson’s terms expired at the end of February 2012. Former UC regent David Crane lost his seat in December 2011 when the California State Senate did not move to confirm him to the board.

UC spokesperson Steve Montiel said to his knowledge, the board has not experienced any problems, and so far, no meeting has needed to be postponed due to low attendance.

“It’s just a matter of time,” Montiel said. “There have been vacancies through the years under various governors.”

Although only 11 regents may be left on the board in March next year, UC Student Regent Cinthia Flores said there is no real urgency to fill the spot needed for an emergency session. She and former student regent Jonathan Stein have already presented Brown with a list of potential candidates who would best complement incoming UC President Janet Napolitano and the rest of the board.

“In my candid conversations with the governor, he said he liked the dynamics of present board,” Flores said. “He said he was going to be cautious so that the productive dynamic of board wouldn’t be altered too much.”

Flores also said important decisions have been made with great efficiency, and if anything, having a smaller board is more conducive.

According to Chris Garland, chief of staff for the Office of Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, he is unaware of any UC Berkeley professors or current regents requesting that the governor nominate new regents.

“It would be really helpful to have a full board, but … the board appears to be functioning quite well now,” Garland said.

Jim Evans, chief deputy press secretary in the Office of the Governor, said although the governor will move as quickly as possible to fill the vacancies, the quality of the candidate is foremost in filling the vacancies.

“As is the case with all of our appointments, our focus is selecting the best possible candidates,” Evans said. “That ultimately dictates our timing.”

J. Hannah Lee covers higher education. Contact her at jhlee@dailycal.org.

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Jeffrey Joh/File

The ASUC Senate wasted no time at the beginning of the academic year, gearing up in its first meeting to debate a bill expressing that the senate has “no confidence” in Janet Napolitano as the incoming UC president.

Napolitano’s appointment raised concerns due to the policies she implemented in her previous position as Secretary of Homeland Security. In response, the ASUC Senate will debate SB 2, titled Bill in Support of Undocumented Students and Immigrant Communities, on Monday.

“The ‘no confidence’ comes from a lot of history — she has deported over 2 million undocumented immigrants,” said ASUC Senator Sean Tan, who authored the bill. “There’s a lot of fear in terms of what is her main priority as UC president, because she comes from a background of surveillance and apprehension and security.”

As Homeland Security Secretary, Napolitano played a role in enacting immigration policies such as Secure Communities, a program that allows local governments to report undocumented immigrants to federal officials.

Under her leadership, the Homeland Security Department deported a record number of undocumented immigrants, according to a report by UAW Local 2865, a UC student workers’ union.

“We call for a president devoted to rebuilding our capacity for teaching, research, and learning — not a specialist in cyber surveillance, law enforcement, and border security,” the union’s release states. “We demand that the UC Regents retract Napolitano’s nomination for appointment and reopen the process for selecting the UC president.”

If the bill is passed, ASUC External Affairs Vice President Safeena Mecklai will present a list of priorities detailed in the bill to the UC Student Association. These priorities include holding mandatory annual trainings for the rights of undocumented citizens, holding town halls for the UC campuses in both Northern and Southern California regions and ensuring that Secure Communities will not be implemented on UC campuses.

“A vote of no confidence is more effective when someone has already been in office,” Mecklai said. “For me personally, it’s more impactful to list eight demands with a timeline of when she needs to follow through with them.”

But some UC officials feel it is too soon to judge how Napolitano will perform as UC president. UC spokesperson Steve Montiel believes students will see that she is a person of “great integrity” as they learn more about her.

“She’s coming to lead the University of California, not coming to lead an immigration enforcement program,” Montiel said. “It’s a whole different world.”

The bill also calls for ASUC President DeeJay Pepito to propose a review of the UC president’s selection process to the UCSA Council of Presidents because some students felt that they were unfairly represented in her appointment.

“We as a senate could look at possible policy changes on how the UC president is selected, because we had a real problem with how student voices weren’t heard,” Mecklai said. “My fear is that we’ll only attack Napolitano and not the process, and in 10 years, this will happen again.”

Student Regent Cinthia Flores said the bill provides a proper avenue for students to voice their positions about Napolitano’s appointment.

Jane Nho covers student government. Contact her at jnho@dailycal.org.

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Nathaniel Solley/Staff

Welcome freshmen, to the University of California, Berkeley.

Not Berkeley, UC Berkeley.

I emphasize the UC part because you need to know your place as a piece in the larger UC system. It’s an essential part of understanding how you, as a student, are affected by distant — and sometimes abstract — decisions.

The short story: There are decision-makers above this campus, called the UC president and regents (read UC system CEO and board of directors), that administer the entire 10-campus, 230,000-student statewide system.

These administrators make the university’s “high-level” decisions: setting admissions standards and enrollment goals, having the final say on major construction projects, determining funding for each UC campus and, most importantly for you, setting tuition.

Tuition and fees for the UC system are about $13,000 per year and have almost doubled in the last five years, after a series of decisions coming from the president and regents. Decisions to raise fees were a response to almost $1 billion in state funding cuts during the state’s recession-induced financial crisis.

But this year, state funding has started to return, with the state increasing funds by about $250 million for fiscal year 2013-14. Gov. Jerry Brown has also asked the regents to freeze UC tuition for the next four years.

The regents also technically own campus buildings, land and facilities — you may have seen the brass plaques on Sproul Plaza that read “Property of the Regents of the University of California.” They approve large campus construction projects, like a $223 million redevelopment project that aims to make Lower Sproul Plaza a hub of student life and activity.

So who are the president and the regents?

Current UC President Mark Yudof, a former executive of the University of Texas system, helped the UC system weather the worst of the recession and the state funding cuts that followed. In January, he announced he would be stepping down from the position at the end of the summer to become a campus professor of constitutional law.

Yudof is set to be replaced by U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano at the end of September. Napolitano will be the first female president in UC history and was previously governor of Arizona.

The UC president is one of the 26 voting members of the UC Board of Regents — 18 are appointed by the California governor and confirmed by the state Senate for 12-year terms.

The regents include former CEO of Paramount Pictures Sherry Lansing and investment banker Richard Blum, who is the husband of U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, as well as ex-officio members like the current governor, lieutenant governor and speaker of the State Assembly.

There is also one student regent, who is selected by a search committee of regents and appointed by the board. The current student regent is Cinthia Flores, a law student at UC Irvine.

So next time you hear about a tuition increase or a universitywide policy change, perhaps you’ll take a second to consider who these people are and what decisions they make — because their decisions very often affect hundreds of thousands of students and cost billions of dollars.

Contact Jacob Brown at jbrown@dailycal.org and follow him on Twitter @jacobebrown.

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Arya Aliabadi/Staff

Six protesters were arrested Thursday after disrupting the appointment of incoming UC president Janet Napolitano and refusing to disperse pursuant to police orders at a UC Board Regents meeting at UCSF Mission Bay.

After a public comment session in which many spoke against Napolitano’s appointment, the regents approved Napolitano’s salary package in a quick vote.

As the board barreled toward full approval, many in the section cordoned off for the public took action.

Chants of “Undocumented is not a crime” and  “Don’t deport my education” erupted from the crowd, referencing Napolitano’s recent position as U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security.

“We were going to do this because we really believe that Janet Napolitano should not be the UC president, so we were willing to go to jail for it,” said Bruno Rosales Huizar, a UCLA student.

Shortly afterward, two protesters charged toward the regents, prompting police to declare the assembly unlawful. After five minutes of warning, four protesters remained and were arrested. Six were arrested in total, but all were released with citations.

More than 40 protesters turned out on Thursday to protest the appointment of Napolitano. Some demonstrated outside the meeting while others shared concerns at the meeting’s public comment session, indicating Napolitano’s history of deportation as homeland security secretary.

Speakers critical of Napolitano described their own experiences as undocumented students under the federal program Secure Communities, which allowed local governments to turn in undocumented immigrants to federal immigration authorities.

Huizar shared how his father was deported on his way to work at a construction site, severely affecting his family’s financial circumstances and his opportunities to pursue higher education.

“I had to worry about finding food for every meal,” Huizar said. “I couldn’t prioritize school anymore. My dream had been shattered. How are you going to tell a parent they don’t have the right to see their child?”

After the arrests, the meeting reconvened with discussion of Napolitano’s appointment. While some regents expressed support for Napolitano, student regent Cinthia Flores voted against her appointment, citing many of the same reasons voiced by protesters.

“I cannot and I will not deny the pain and experiences of countless students and families who have been negatively impacted by Secure Communities,” she said. “I know that their fear is real.”

But Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom defended Napolitano’s record on immigration, saying the responsibility for implementing Secure Communities was widely spread, with many decisions on enforcement falling to local governments instead of just the Department of Homeland Security.

“I just want to apply a broader level of responsibility that we all shared for the app of Secure Communities,” Newsom said, referencing his own history as mayor of San Francisco. “The application as it was processed created a lot of legitimate controversy that was rightly addressed, city by city and across this country.”

Regent Bonnie Reiss, who also sat on the selection committee, affirmed that Napolitano would address concerns of protesters who were fearful because of her prior experience. Reiss said Napolitano was eager to know the “real concerns among the student body” and that she sat with many and assured them she hears their voice.

Napolitano also addressed protesters’ criticism at a press conference following her appointment.

“I would say to these students, documented or undocumented, we are here for the business of education, and I will be an advocate of that in Sacramento and in D.C.,” she said.

Ju Hong, an undocumented UC Berkeley alumnus, was among those who demonstrated at the meeting. He said he will continue protesting Napolitano’s appointment as UC president despite the board’s decision Thursday.

“I know that undocumented immigrant communities are disappointed, and I know that this is just the beginning,” he said.

Contact Sophie Mattson and Andrea Guzman at newsdesk@dailycal.org.

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Jeffrey Joh/File

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano will be appointed as the next president of the University of California system on Friday, pending approval by the UC Board of Regents next week.

Taking over in the wake of President Mark Yudof’s planned August resignation, she will be the first woman to occupy the position of UC president in the system’s 145-year history. She has served as governor of Arizona and was among more than 300 candidates considered for the position. Napolitano also resigned from her position as secretary of Homeland Security on Friday.

Though she lacks previous experience in university administration, Napolitano has served in various public leadership roles. She was the first woman to occupy the position of attorney general of Arizona from 1998 to 2003 and served two terms as governor of Arizona from 2003 to 2009. She was also the first woman to chair the National Governors Association.

“I am both honored and excited by the prospect of serving as president of the University of California,” Napolitano said in a statement Friday. “I recognize that I am a non-traditional candidate … In my experience, whether preparing to govern a state or to lead an agency as critical and complex as Homeland Security, I have found the best way to start is simply to listen.”

According to Tim Bee, associate vice president for state relations at the University of Arizona, “education was a top priority” for Napolitano during her tenure as Arizona governor. He noted Napolitano’s help establishing the University of Arizona’s College of Medicine in Phoenix, securing pay increases for Arizona university employees and allocating about $1 billion of lottery revenues for university infrastructure, among other things.

“At the time she left office, the university system in Arizona was receiving the largest total general fund appropriations in the history of the state,” Bee said. “Education was a very important focus of her efforts to build a strong workforce and a diversified economy with a focus on science, bioscience and technology.”

But Napolitano still represents an unconventional choice for the university, which only five years ago selected its first president from outside the UC system, Mark Yudof. Yudof had more than two decades of experience in university administration — which included heading the University of Texas and University of Minnesota.

The Board of Regents have set a more political course by selecting Napolitano, at a time when the state government is increasingly involved in its affairs. Last year, Gov. Jerry Brown attended a regents meeting for the first time in his term where he criticized the pace at which the university was pursuing online education. Brown’s 2013-14 proposed budget initially tied higher education funding to performance standards set by the state.

Raquel Morales, president of the University of California Student Association, chaired the student advisory committee that aided in Napolitano’s selection. She said the committee was looking for “someone outside of the system” who was “more of a political figure,” able to address issues with the federal government and the state governor.

“It will be exciting to work with her,” Brown said in a brief statement released Friday morning. “Secretary Napolitano has the strength of character and an outsider’s mind that will well serve the students and faculty.”

Student regent Cinthia Flores also said Napolitano’s political experience will help her in the role but that it might be difficult for her to interface with UC students without educational experience.

“I think her name recognition may assist the UC’s advocacy efforts at the state and federal level,” she said. “(But) Napolitano will have a difficult transition into the role of head university administrator. In particular, I think she may need strong guidance in helping build and nurture working relationships with students.”

As Homeland Security secretary, Napolitano has been involved in debates over immigration reform. She has supported provisions of the DREAM Act, allowing students who meet its criteria to remain in the country despite the act failing to pass in Congress.

However, some have expressed concern over her leadership role in the Obama administration’s deportation of more than 1.4 million undocumented immigrants since 2008.

“The Obama administration has deported a staggering number of people,” said ASUC Executive Vice President Nolan Pack. Napolitano’s support of the DREAM Act is also inconsistent with the policies of Homeland Security, he said.

Pack said he doubts whether Napolitano would gain any support from undocumented students in light of this inconsistency.

“It is important students have someone who can understand and empathize in high positions of administration,” Pack said.

Morales said she hopes Napolitano is willing to fight for student rights, which would include efforts to broaden the types of resources available for undocumented students.

“We hope she will be able to address these issues regardless of her background,” Morales said.

Napolitano was recommended to the UC Regents in a unanimous vote by a selection committee that included former student regent Jonathan Stein, former board chair Sherry Lansing, current chair Bruce Varner and regents Richard Blum and Russell Gould, as well as Brown.

Contact Micah Fry at mfry@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article misspelled Janet Napolitano’s last name.

A previous version of this article may have implied that Janet Napolitano was appointed as UC President on Friday. In fact, she will be appointed pending approval by the UC Board of Regents Thursday.

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