UC Regent Jose Hernandez expressed approval for recent tuition hikes and spoke about his background as a migrant farmworker at a fireside chat in the Latinx Success Center on Nov. 21.
More than 20 people attended the chat, which was organized by the Undergraduate Students Association Council Office of the President in coordination with the LSC. Marlene Jaquez, the director of UC system advocacy for the USAC Office of the President, facilitated the event alongside Arlene Cano Matute, the inaugural executive director of the LSC.
Hernandez responded to questions submitted by people who RSVP’d and questions from the audience.
Hernandez said that, as migrant farmworkers, his family lived between California and Mexico – until a teacher, frustrated by having to prepare homework packets for the traveling Hernandez family, convinced them to stay in one place.
“To me, college was hard,” Hernandez said. “It was, but I always stopped and compared myself, ‘Is this harder than the sun beating down on you picking cucumbers for 50 cents a bucket as a teenager?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t want to do this all my life.’”
Hernandez said he thinks of himself as a voice for students on the UC Board of Regents. He added that he fights for students as much as he can – up until the point of appearing as a “crazy visionary.”
He said that a letter he wrote to UC President James Milliken contributed to saving hiring incentives for the President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship Program – which provides funding for UC campuses to recruit fellows for teaching positions.
[Related: UC to keep postdoctoral hiring incentive program it previously said would be cut]
The UC Regents voted to approve tuition hikes for incoming students two days prior to the event – which Hernandez labeled as an effort that took into account the realities of the economy while attempting to minimize impacts on students. Hernandez voted in support of the model.
Hernandez said that his door is always open to students, and that raising tuition was a “tough decision” and “necessary evil” meant to put the University in a better financial position.
“It’s tough when you’re sitting there, and it’s tougher for someone like me – who’s lived the life of a student without resources,” Hernandez said. “It’s not as tough for the billionaire sitting next to me making that decision.”
[Related: UC Regents amend, renew progressive tuition increases for new students]
Hernandez said that he submitted several unsuccessful applications to become an astronaut.
On his sixth application, he said he balled up his rejection letter and unsuccessfully tried to throw it in the trash. When his wife picked up the paper, he said all he wanted was her sympathy.
“She sat there expressionless and looked me straight in the eyes saying, ‘I didn’t know I married a quitter,’” he said.
His wife motivated him to realize what other applicants had that he was missing, he said. Hernandez became a pilot, learned to scuba dive and accepted a job in Russia managing nuclear stockpiles with the knowledge that the upcoming International Space Station would be a collaboration between the United States and Russia, he said.
On his 12th application, Hernandez was accepted to become an astronaut.
Jaquez, a third-year political science student, said she reached out to Regent Hernandez to participate in the fireside chat and selected the LSC due to its recent opening and Hernandez’s background as a first-generation Mexican-American. Jaquez added that she hopes the chat gave students a “deeper understanding” of Regent Hernandez, whose background resonates with many students.
[Related: UCLA’s new Latinx Success Center serves Latino students, builds community]
Jaquez also said the chat was a more “casual and comfortable event” – allowing for more direct, personal conversations between the students and Hernandez.
“It allowed for students to have an opportunity to hear from the regent himself – hear what he’s working on, what he stands for and what they are able to ask him to do,” Jaquez said.
Gissel Carrillo Fregoso, a third-year sociology student, said she was first inspired by Hernandez’s story after watching his movie “A Million Miles Away” – a biopic documenting his path from farmworker to astronaut and engineer. She added that she wanted the chance to meet him personally, as she resonated with his story as a Latina navigating higher education.
Carillo Fregoso said Hernandez’s repeated attempts in the face of rejections from NASA reassured her as a pre-law student preparing for the Law School Admission Test. She added that the event helped humanize the Regents and allowed Hernandez to hear what issues are affecting students.
“Having him come up here reassured me through his own story and his own struggles, that you know you do belong here was very empowering,” Carillo Fregoso said. “I think that’s what I wanted to take away from this event – that it is possible, and there are people like me.”
Hernandez said his goal is to inspire students to reach their highest academic potential.
“Having role models that look like them, speak like them and perhaps come from similar socioeconomic backgrounds,” Hernandez said. “To me, it’s more of an empowering process. They look at me and they say, ‘Wow, if he did it. Why can’t I?’”
Comments are closed.