UC Irvine Student to Hone Her Activism as Student Regent

When Jenny Doh and her family emigrated to Bakersfield from Korea in 1974, their arrival was heralded by a banner headline and story on the front page of the local paper.

But though civic leaders welcomed the city’s first Korean family, other children’s curiosity was painful to the gregarious 7-year-old, who suddenly found herself among blond, blue-eyed youngsters demanding to know why her eyes were so oddly shaped and her nose so flat.

“I just shut up; I turned inward,” the 23-year-old UC Irvine senior said, wincing at the memory. By high school, though, Doh emerged from her shell. She began to take pride in her Korean heritage, her academic and artistic abilities, and became one of the leaders at her school.

Now, as the first Asian and first UCI student appointed to serve on the University of California Board of Regents, the self-described radical feminist said her mission is to be an effective voice for students, and especially for women and ethnic minorities.

It is a remarkable opportunity--a victory, really--for the young political science major who two years ago lost an ego-bruising campaign for UCI’s student body presidency to emerge as the most prominent student in the nine-campus UC system.

In 1988, Doh helped organize a student coalition that sought more minority representation in UCI’s Associated Students group. Movement of University Students for Effective Lobbying backed her unsuccessful bid for AS president. The movement was later named 1989’s outstanding political organization on any University of California campus by the statewide Associated Students group.

“I may lose, but in the process, I try to get my voice heard,” explained Doh, who became an official voting regent at last week’s meeting in Santa Cruz. “And this (being student regent) is an opportunity to get my oar in the water.”

By appearance, she would hardly be taken for a radical.

At the regents meetings, where decorum is studiously observed and the public is kept at a distance, she conveys confidence and seriousness. She is always attired in conservative business suits. Her shoulder-length black hair is neatly trimmed. Only a waist-length braid at the nape of her neck belies the corporate image.

And while Doh views herself as a crusader for the oppressed, her style has evolved into one of building on common interests that some say portends a future in public service or politics.

Serving as UCI’s student ombudsman last year has helped, said UCI campus ombudsman Ronald Wilson, who offered Doh the student job when she lost the campus president’s race.

“She has grown in the last year,” he said. “That fire is still there, but it is now tempered with reason, with the ability to look at both sides of an issue rather than the side most appealing to her.

“Make no mistake, Jenny is a politician. And I say that in the most positive sense. . . . In fact, I told her, ‘I expect to see you as the second woman governor of California (after his choice for the upcoming race, Dianne Feinstein) or the first woman President,’ ” said Wilson, who with his family has taken Doh under his wing.

Historically, radicals among the 15 previous student regents have had trouble being taken seriously when they were perceived as too strident or identified too closely with the UC students association, especially in the wake of student protests in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Carol Lynn Mock, the first student regent, compared the post to walking a tightrope, saying that it was never clear whether she was to be a regular trustee or a student representative on the 26-member board.

“At times, the (UC) student body council wanted the student regent to be their voice. And at times, the regents wanted that too. The problem is that one person cannot be representative of 130,000 students,” said Mock, a senior at UC Santa Barbara when she was named to the Board of Regents in 1975.

Asked at the time what her goals were, she was widely quoted as saying: “Not to be the last student regent.”

That angered some of the more radical UC students, recalled Mock, now 37 and an assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois in Champaign.

Mock is generally credited with deftly negotiating the tightrope on a Board of Regents dominated by conservatives, thereby ensuring the future of the student’s seat.

“If the first student regent wasn’t so effective, the board may not have continued to have one,” said Bonnie Smotony, secretary to the regents.

Still, over the years, many members have tended to regard the student they select as a “special-interest regent . . . (who was) only representing students, and that what they said therefore ought to be discounted,” said former regent Vilma S. Martinez, a prominent Los Angeles attorney whose 14-year stint on the board ended in March.

“I thought that was an unfair charge,” she said. “They bring a perspective and talent which the rest of us simply don’t have. They are students who are on a campus daily. They know what’s going on. . . . I always listened very carefully to what they had to say.”

UC Irvine’s 1990 Student Body President, Todd Schubert, said Doh is savvy enough to realize she must “earn the respect” of fellow regents if she wants to convey her views effectively.

“Jenny will keep that in mind and work well with the group, and at the same time advocate students’ views,” predicted Schubert, 21, a senior majoring in social ecology with an emphasis on criminal justice.

Issues of concern to Doh are quality education, support--financial and otherwise--for students and cultural diversity. That’s why she chose the regents’ special committee on affirmative action as one of her assignments during her one-year term. She also serves on the educational policy, grounds and buildings, and hospital governance committees.

As student regent, she said, she knows she’ll have to balance the university’s budget realities against her radicalism and desire to help students and boost support for women and minorities.

“It’s tough, because I do understand what the dollars mean and how important it is to make the (budget) numbers balance.” At the same time, she said, scrimping on education doesn’t pay, asserting that California’s economic health depends on educating its people.

“I don’t argue that we (University of California students) are getting a great education at an affordable price. But what is a public institution’s purpose if not to provide education for the public?”

Doh, who postponed graduation a year to be student regent, said she plans to get a graduate degree in women’s studies. “I want to study where I can write about women’s oppression, radical feminism and issues of public policy, like equal pay and child care,” she said.

When she’s not studying or crusading, she’s like any other college student--joking around, socializing with friends, listening to music and watching the latest movies. “Steel Magnolias” was a special favorite of hers, friends said.

She also plays the cello, piano and guitar. Yet the earnest crusader emerges even in her music.

Wilson said he stumbled on Doh and his 10-year-old daughter playing the folk protest song, “We Shall Overcome.”

Some past student regents were criticized by their peers as being too interested in having the job on their resumes and making future professional ties.

Elaine Yamaguchi, an employee for UC Students Associated, which yearly selects the three student regent finalists, said Doh is unlikely to be one of those.

“A lot of times you get to be student regent and you see yourself as somewhat exalted,” said Yamaguchi. “Jenny still sees herself as one of the real people. She has no problems being a kid.”

After Thursday’s session at UC Santa Cruz, the usual elegant reception was planned for all the regents, top UC officials, the university chancellors and their spouses at a nearby hotel.

Doh ducked out in jeans and T-shirt and went with Yamaguchi and former student regent Jaquelyn Ross of UC Davis in search of more modest fare.

Asked what she would want to say of her term in office a year from now, the bespectacled young woman knitted her brow and looked past the crowd gathered on the Santa Cruz wharf. “To have remained true to my beliefs and the interests of students, and have had the other regents listen to me.”