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.