UCI Places Its 1st Student on Regents’ Board

For the first time, a UC Irvine student has been selected to serve on the University of California Board of Regents.

Jenny Doh, a 23-year-old senior majoring in political science, will begin serving a one-year term as the non-voting student member of the board, which governs the nine-campus UC system.

Doh said financial aid, the quality of education, cultural diversity and the impact of university growth on students are the most important issues facing the UC system.

State officials are considering adding three new campuses to the system to accommodate projected increases in the number of eligible students. And several existing campuses, including Irvine, are in the middle of major expansion projects.

“I have first-hand experience with growth because of all the building going on here,” Doh said of the 26-year-old campus. “Students feel isolated in the system when they see just growth, growth, growth.”

As the system grows and new campuses open, it should embrace and cultivate the changing ethnic makeup and cultural diversity of the state, Doh advised.

At the same time, financial aid can be used both to attract more minority students and also help students who work their way through college graduate more quickly, she said.

Doh also stressed the need to keep student-to-teacher ratios manageable as the system grows.

Much of the proposed UC expansion is tied to a June ballot measure that would modify the 1979 Gann initiative, which limited the expenditures of state and local taxes. Doh said she was “crossing her fingers” that the measure succeeds, noting that without the additional campuses, serious overcrowding at existing campuses will occur.

The student regent is supposed to give the board a student’s perspective on issues and does not serve as a student advocate.

“My first and foremost job is to serve the state and the university,” Doh said. “I’m a messenger to the board and to the students.”

UCI’s Associated Students president Susan Barnes, who defeated Doh in the university’s student presidential race last year, said she thought Doh would be a good regent and would offer the board a different perspective from that of representatives from more established UC campuses such as UCLA and Berkeley.

“This is a boost for Irvine. It will shed attention on us for a year,” Barnes said.

Doh was chosen from among 65 other candidates by a special regents committee; her term begins in July.

Doh, who moved to the United States from her native Korea in 1974, said her exposure to diverse groups of people sparked her interest in university politics.

“When I was in high school in Bakersfield, I thought I was the only person in the world to feel how it is to be an Asian-American,” she said. “When I came to UCI, I realized I was not alone . . . I discovered my rights.”

Doh has been involved in ethnic minority and gay rights causes and served as a representative on UCI’s Think Tank on Cultural Diversity. She said she would urge the regents to look closely at the needs of these groups.

“I see a lot of homophobia and racism,” Doh said. Although she said she is not gay, she said, “It hurts me to see my friends go through such pain.”.