The Brief

The University of California serves 300,000 students, yet only one of the two students on the 26-member Board of Regents is allowed to vote. Now, student leaders are campaigning for a second vote, saying it would better ensure that UC policy reflects all students.

Regents are the top decision-makers of the UC system, and set policies for all campuses, including tuition increases. When one student has to represent the wishes of the entire student population, some feel other perspectives miss out. Last year, when one student regent voted in favor of raising nonresident tuition , the other student regent disagreed, but couldn’t vote on it.

Currently, the non-voting student spends the first year on the board as a “regent-designate.” That student then moves into the voting position the following year. The students are selected from an applicant pool of all UC graduate and undergraduate students and approved by the board.

By adding a second vote for student regents, UC would follow in the footsteps of the other two public higher education systems in the state. Legislation passed earlier this decade enabled voting power for two student representatives on the California State University and California Community College governing boards.

UC board policy, by contrast, cannot be changed through a legislative bill, but could be changed by measures voted on by the regents, or by a constitutional amendment approved by both the Legislature and California voters. Unlike Cal State and community colleges, the UC was established by the state constitution as a system that governs itself with very limited legislative oversight. An attorney general once likened the Board of Regents to a branch of state government , equal to the legislative, judiciary and executive.

If they choose to go for the amendment, student advocates would like to see it passed by the end of next year’s legislative session so the measure can appear on the November 2026 midterm elections ballot.

Student advocates take the lead

Current student regent Sonya Brooks, a doctoral student in education policy at UCLA, began her voting tenure in July, when she voted in a committee meeting against allowing the UC president to raise professional degree tuition. The committee voted to recommend the president be given this authority, with six in favor and three against. The full board then voted to affirm the authority.

“I've always been an advocate for all things justice,” Brooks said. “Now, because of this position and the opportunities that are available, I've really taken advantage to really help not only students… but also faculty and staff.”

The Regents of the University of California and its committees meet on the second day of a two-day session at the UC San Francisco Mission Bay Conference Center in San Francisco on Sept. 17, 2025.

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Florence Middleton

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for CalMatters

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Miguel Craven, an energy systems graduate student at UC Davis, is shadowing Brooks this year as the non-voting student regent. He was UC Merced’s student government senator and president during undergrad, while also serving as a student observer to the regents.

He hopes to act as a bridge between students and regents, in a system that can structurally feel hard for students to participate in.

"It's not so much that the institution consults the students,” Craven said. “The reality is, it's the other way: the students have to consult the institution… It's up to the students to make that effort.”

Every year, the UC Student Association, a coalition of UC students and student governments, conducts a civic engagement campaign called UCweVOTE to teach students about electoral processes and encourage them to vote. This year, to boost student power on the Board of Regents, they are taking the lead in advocating for voting rights for the second student regent.

Aditi Hariharan, the association’s president and a fifth-year nutrition and political science double major at UC Davis, wants to see a broader range of student voices and backgrounds represented that cannot be captured in just one vote.

“The need for this campaign is the fact that students aren't a monolith,” said Hariharan. “Not every student views issues the same.”

Advocates believe a second voting student can also give weight to the student voice on more than one of the regents’ 10 committees . Regent committees often meet concurrently, meaning the voting student regent can only cast votes at one of them.

Committee deliberations often have big impacts on regent decisions, says former student regent Alexis Zaragoza. Non-voting student regents can attend committee meetings and contribute to discussions, but Zaragoza noted even this ability is not protected in policy. She wishes it was.

“If you have two student votes… maybe the other student votes a different way, right?” Zaragoza said. “And it kind of just shows, maybe students are actually kind of split on this issue, maybe your different backgrounds contribute in different ways. It no longer puts that pressure on one student to represent an entire populace.”

One issue on which students and student regents sometimes disagree is tuition. At the November 2024 regent meeting, the board, including Josiah Beharry, the student regent at the time, voted to increase nonresident tuition.

At the meeting, multiple students raised concerns about the tuition increase, including Craven as a student observer, who said the increase would limit accessibility at the UC by making the university less affordable for out-of-state and international students.

The two students were “not in agreement” on this issue, Brooks recalled. After the vote, Beharry asked Brooks how she would have voted in his shoes. She told him she would have voted against the increase. Beharry has not responded to multiple requests for comment.

A trip through the Legislature

In 2021, former Sen. Steve Glazer, a Democrat from Orinda in the East Bay, introduced Senate Constitutional Amendment 5 , which would have required the creation of a second voting student regent. The Assembly Appropriations Committee determined that the amendment’s costs to the UC would be “minor and absorbable.”

However, Glazer told CalMatters that the committee decided the amendment would not progress, without specifying a reason.

In 1974, a constitutional amendment approved by California voters gave the board permission to have a student regent. The regents added the position in 1975. Then, in 1993, the regents created the regent-designate position by voting on a policy, without a constitutional amendment.

According to an assembly committee analysis of Glazer’s amendment, a constitutional amendment is not required to add a second student voter. This time around, the student association is considering simply proposing a policy change for the board to vote on rather than a constitutional amendment.

If the student association decides to go the amendment route, they would need a legislator to sponsor the bill, which would need the approval of several committees, a two-thirds vote in both the Assembly and Senate, and a simple majority of votes in a statewide election.

As with Glazer’s amendment, students say the change in voting power will not directly lead to extra costs for the university, because both student regents already attend all meetings on the UC’s dime. It would be a simple transition from a non-voting to a voting role.

Some students do still see value in having a non-voting student regent build understanding during the first year before receiving voting power. Brooks is an active participant at bi-monthly regent meetings, asking questions, chatting with students, and engaging in debates with other regents. But when she joined the board, “I didn't know A to Z,” she said. “If I didn't have that one year to grow, to meet people, to form these organic relationships… I would have completely been lost.”

All regents, including student regents, complete the same orientation. These training sessions teach them board policies and logistics, and include briefings with board leaders. So when student regents join the board, they know what they’re getting into, Zaragoza said.

None of the 18 regents appointed by the governor responded to CalMatters’ requests for comment on this story. The other seven members are “ex officio,” having regental power by virtue of another office they hold, such as the governor and Assembly speaker. These members don’t always attend regent meetings.

Craven thinks that a second student voter isn’t the sole solution to the lack of student representation. He’s interested in ways to expand student advocacy at the regents beyond the positions that exist.

“What does student representation mean?” Craven said. “Does that mean somebody who's actually voting, who sits on the board? Do we want to provide an additional space for students to be able to speak?… It's a discussion that has to happen.”

On Nov. 19, the regents will vote whether to re-affirm annual tuition increases for incoming groups of students, which was first implemented in 2021. Brooks said few students have shared concerns with her over the increases, but she plans to seek them out and talk to them.

“I will continue to reach out to students and vote accordingly,” Brooks said.

This story was originally published by  CalMatters , a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization that explains California policies and politics and makes its government more transparent and accountable.