Orange County Woman to Chair UC Regents

Meredith J. Khachigian, a member of the University of California Board of Regents since 1987, was unanimously elected chairman of the 26-member governing body Friday.

Khachigian, 45, of San Clemente, is the wife of Ken Khachigian, a Republican campaign strategist and former speech writer for former Presidents Richard M. Nixon and Ronald Reagan.

An alumna of UC Santa Barbara, Khachigian said she plans to make improving undergraduate education a priority of her one-year term as chairwoman. As a community volunteer who has long been involved in statewide education issues, she said she expects to be a visible and vocal representative of the nine-campus university system.

“I intend to be really very active, no doubt about it,” said Khachigian, who was first appointed a regent in 1987 by former Gov. George Deukmejian. “But I don’t enter into it with any conceptions that I’m going to breeze through this year, especially with the serious budget problems.

“I think we can achieve great things in spite of the obstacles ahead of us,” she said.

The regents this year increased student fees 40%, cut enrollments, halted plans for new campuses and slashed spending to balance a $295-million shortfall in its $2.4-billion budget request for fiscal 1991-92. The state budget passed by the state Assembly Thursday calls for the UC system to absorb an additional $12.5-million cut.

Khachigian was chosen by her fellow board members during a meeting at UCLA.

Jeremiah F. Hallisey, a San Francisco attorney appointed to the board in 1982 by former Gov. Edmund G. Brown Jr., was named vice chairman. Both take office on July 1. Regents are not paid a salary, but are reimbursed for expenses associated with the job.