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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The legislation, proposed by Senator Mark Leno (D-San Francisco), would allow local property taxes to pass with a 55 percent voter majority in communities instead of supermajority as currently required.

The proposal comes in the wake of Proposition 30’s passage and newly elected democratic supermajorities in both legislative houses. If approved, the legislation may open the door to even greater changes to Proposition 13 — a landmark piece of legislation that limits property taxes and requires a two-thirds majority to pass local measures in communities and taxes through the legislature.

“I think given the context of everything happening with Prop. 30… changing the way taxes are passed in California through structural changes of Prop 13 is important,” said ASUC External Affairs Vice President Shahryar Abbasi.

According to Abbasi, Prop. 13 has been the primary reason for a lack of consistent revenue in the state of California and this has directly affected UC funding.

“Education funding across California has been decimated in recent years, with severe consequences for students and our local schools,” Leno said in a statement. “This change in law would give voters the power to make decisions about public education at the local level.”

Leno’s bill will first be formally discussed in the new year, according to his press secretary Ali Bay.

Implemented in 1978, Prop. 13 has long been a point of contention among Californians for its strict anti-tax constraints. Despite cries for reform, former Berkeley College Republicans President Shawn Lewis said the measure keeps many people in their houses, and most Californians still support the measure.

“Passing Prop. 30 sent a signal that (the legislature) can use students as a bargaining chip,” Lewis said. “That’s kind of what I see happening again.”

As part of their budget campaign, the University of California Student Association took up reforming Prop. 13 due to its effects on public education. But it remains to be seen if Californians are interested in revising the law.

“It feels like we’re not clear right now if the passage of Prop. 30 means that we are in a new era in California in terms of taxes,” said UC Student Regent Jonathan Stein. “Maybe it means that (the state is) open to revising Prop. 13, but maybe it doesn’t.”

Contact Libby Rainey at lrainey@dailycal.org.

Correction(s):
A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that Senator Mark Leno’s proposed legislation would place a proposition on the ballot to amend Proposition 13. In fact, the legislation itself would amend Proposition 13.

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