Friday, February 7, 1997
EDUCATION:
Trustee’s political actions conflict with board’s ethical
responsibility to publicBy Charles Bertsch
We are greatly disturbed by Regent Ward Connerly’s recent
announcement that he has stepped further into the political arena
with his crusade against affirmative action. We, the 14 undersigned
presidents of undergraduate and graduate students at the nine
campuses of the University of California, believe that Connerly’s
political activities constitute a breach of his ethical
responsibilities as a regent of the University of California. For
the following reasons, we call on Connerly to resign from his
position on the UC Board of Regents.
The framers of the California Constitution deliberately
established the UC Board of Regents to insulate the university from
the political influences of the legislature and the tides of public
opinion. The constitution states, "The university shall be entirely
independent of all political or sectarian influence and kept free
therefrom in the appointment of its regents and in the
administration of its affairs…" (Article IX, Section 9F). The
Board of Regents has served as a buffer protecting the university
from the tyranny of the majority even during the dark days of the
McCarthy era. Academic freedom and protection from political
opportunism have been, and continue to be, essential to the
vitality of our public university.
However, the framers took certain risks in establishing an
independent Board of Regents to oversee the affairs of the
university. Regents who are appointed by the governor serve the
people as trustees of the university without possibility of removal
or recall for a 12-year term. The protections regents have enjoyed
by serving the public for lengthy terms without election or review
of their conduct have also allowed them to serve with impunity no
matter what their decisions. In American civil society, Supreme
Court justices are perhaps the only other public servants who enjoy
such protection. Thus, university governance by a Board of Regents
simultaneously provides the greatest opportunity for protection
from political manipulation and the greatest potential for
political opportunism, not by the majority but rather by an elite
minority of individual trustees who choose to further their own
political agendas at the expense of the university and the
people.
We are dismayed that Connerly has chosen, in our view, to breach
his ethical responsibilities to the people by using his protected
position to further his own political agenda and personal
ambitions. In our judgment, Connerly has chosen to use his position
to accumulate political power and lead political campaigns at the
state and national level. This appears to be an abuse of
privilege.
We ask two simple questions to prove this point. Would citizen
Connerly have had the political standing in the California
political arena to become a leader for the Proposition 209 campaign
had he not been a UC regent who promoted the dismantling of
affirmative action in the University of California? We think not.
Moreover, would citizen Connerly have gained local and national
media attention for his national political crusade against
affirmative action had he not been a regent? We think not.
None of us would deny citizen Connerly’s right to exercise his
First Amendment rights. However, while Connerly may declare that he
can somehow separate his political activities from his position as
a regent, it is clear that the public, the press, the political
establishments and the university community recognize him and
respond to him as regent. The stature he derives from being a
regent has allowed him to gain statewide and national attention for
his cause. This makes him a political rather than an apolitical
regent. In our judgment, his actions have introduced partisan
politics into the university  a phenomenon the Board of
Regents was designed to safeguard against.
Unfortunately Connerly’s choice to use the protections he enjoys
as a regent have gone unchecked. He has made his name in the
political world at the expense of our university and people of the
state of California. Connerly has brought partisan politics into
our house when he assumed the responsibility to protect the
university community from it. As we see it, his own choices now
render him unable to fulfill his duties as an apolitical trustee.
We recognize Connerly’s service to the university and now urge him
to take the honorable road and step down from his position on the
Board of Regents. This will be best for the university and for the
people of California.
Charles Bertsch, chair of Graduate Students Association, UC
Berkeley; Alan Brown, president of Graduate Students Association,
UC Riverside; Michael Caulfield, chair of Student Union Assembly,
UC Santa Cruz; Travis Dixon, president of Graduate Students
Association, UC Santa Barbara; John Du, president of Undergraduate
Students Association Council, UCLA; Kathleen Flint, Graduate
Students Association, UC Santa Cruz; Ashish Kurani, president of
Associated Students, UC Davis; Vicki Mayer, president of Graduate
Students Association, UC San Diego; Jeremiah Paknawin, mock
president of Graduate Students Association, UC San Francisco; Joel
Ruiz, president of Associated Students, UC Irvine; Coleen Sabatini,
president of Associated Students, UC San Diego; Nick Thornburg,
chair of Graduate Students Association, UC Davis; Christopher
Tymchuk, president of Graduate Students Association UCLA; John
Yasmer, president of Associated Students, UC Riverside.