UC students are fighting to add a second student voting seat to the UC Board of Regents.
Assemblymembers Jessica Caloza and Patrick Ahrens co-authored proposed legislation that would mandate one undergraduate and one graduate or professional seat on the Board of Regents. The proposed Assembly Constitutional Amendment No. 18 would mandate adding a second voting student to the board.
The current seat was added in 1974, when the UC system served 124,000 students. The UC system enrolled 301,093 students in fall 2025.
“Throughout the years, the student regent position has always been primarily dominated by graduate students, and that isn’t necessarily anything negative,” said UC Student Association, or UCSA, spokesperson Zaynab Masri. “But it also creates this imbalance where there’s a lack of both graduate and undergraduate perspectives at the UC Board of Regents.”
Last November, the Board of Regents voted to renew the cohort tuition stability plan. The incoming undergraduate class will have their tuition raised annually by a maximum of 5% to account for inflation, while money set aside for financial aid would decrease. This was met with frustration and opposition from the ASUC, public commenters and the UCSA at the regents meeting.
“Students have been advocating against this model, but the regents didn’t listen,” Masri said. “There becomes a lack of communication between undergraduate students and the regents.”
A second seat would provide more legislative power to the UC student body, the UCSA argues. Other higher education systems in the state, such as the California State University and the California Community College systems, have already created two student voting seats to their governing boards.
A similar effort was made to add a seat by former Senator Steve Glazer, who authored a failed version of the bill in 2021. This time, the bill is not only advocated for by the UCSA, but also by the UC Graduate and Professional Council.
“We were not only able to educate students about what exactly the UC Board of Regents does and how it functions, but also learn what kind of feedback they want to see from the regents,” Masri said about the new bill. “We also got feedback from legislators in our coalition regarding the language and what could be done differently.”
The UC system continues to remain neutral, declining to take a formal position on the proposal.
To appear on the California ballot in November, the bill requires a two-thirds majority vote in both the Assembly and the Senate.
“UC leaders, including the Board of Regents, engage regularly and closely with student regents and various student groups,” said UC Office of the President spokesperson Omar Rodriguez in an email. “We value their insightful perspective on diverse issues impacting the University. Students have an important role in informing and helping make decisions on UC policies, and we are committed to continuing our strong collaboration with them.”