If the new version of state Rep. Patrick Rose's student-regent bill becomes law, some student leaders might claim victory.
Rose, D-Dripping Springs, said Monday that he would accept a substitution to his bill, House Bill 1968. While the original legislation would have mandated that one of the nine voting members of any public university board of regents be a student of that institution, the substitute version will merely add a non-voting student as the board's 10th member.
Those who have fought for a student regent may be tempted to characterize this bill as a "foot in the door" for student power and representation. Student Government President Omar Ochoa called Rose's substitute "the best way of making a compromise."
We couldn't disagree more.
Rose agreed that putting a non-voting student on the board was not sufficient representation. But he said a voting student regent faced significant opposition from the governor's office and other legislators, and he called the substitution a "step in the right direction."
But a non-voting student representative on the UT System Board of Regents is not a student regent. He or she will be little more than an audience member.
The non-voting representative may have more time than the average student to voice concerns and complaints before the board. He or she might be invited to swanky fund-raising events and have the chance to show off his or her new business attire.
But the student will be seen as redundant with the student-advisory mechanisms currently in place at the system level. And, without a vote, regents will not be forced to consider student interest or opinion on contentious issues.
On the UT System Board of Regents, no vote will likely mean no voice. For UT students, this compromise offers little change from the status quo.
The student-regent debate is about student representation. Pulling an extra chair up to the table is simply not good enough.
Two bills in the state senate, one by Sen. Jeff Wentworth, R-San Antonio, and one by Sen. Eliot Shapleigh, D-El Paso, still offer voting student representation. We continue to support genuine efforts to ensure a student voice in university affairs.
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