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Reed Hutchinson
UCLA Photographic Services |
Board of Regents is student's latest assignment
by ajay singh
today staff writer
On July 21, the day after UCLA doctoral student Maria Ledesma was appointed the UC student regent for 2006-07, the UC Board of Regents approved a hike in the tuition fees of certain professional students. Ledesma wasn’t surprised. She agrees universities need more funds to maintain quality education and competitiveness.
But she also believes tuition costs should not rise substantially — as they are again expected to next year — without a comprehensive long-term policy on fees. “As it is, students have very full plates just trying to make it every day,” she said. “I wish there were some other way of increasing resources, especially since California’s master plan calls for affordability in higher education.”
Ledesma, 34, is the first Chicana — and the 10th UCLA student — to become UC’s student regent since the position was created in 1975. Chosen from among 79 applicants, she assumes her new role at a time of rising Latino influence in the nation’s political, economic and cultural affairs.
“It’s very exciting,” said Ledesma of her appointment, “because the regents did acknowledge I was the first Latina student regent.”
She’s well-suited for the job, not least because she’s a doctoral candidate in education at UCLA’s Graduate School of Education & Information Studies. Her research focus: the importance of highly selective public institutions for historically underrepresented groups.
The issue is important to her in much more than an academic sense. Born in Mexico, Ledesma emigrated with her family to Oakland, Calif., when she was 4 years old. Her father worked as a laborer and forklift driver to provide for the family while her mother looked after the children at home. Thanks to their hard work and support, Ledesma and her three siblings became the first in their family to go to college.
And not just any college. All four graduated from UC Berkeley. Ledesma majored in English and pursued an ethnic studies minor, but it wasn’t until she earned a master’s degree in education from Harvard in 1999 that she found her niche. “I surprised myself and did very well,” she recalled. “I was encouraged by my experience at Harvard and the support of my professors, coworkers, colleagues and family.”
Ledesma, who is already attending regents’ meetings as a student regent designate, is now preparing to take on the challenge of voicing the concerns of more than 200,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students in the UC system. Although she will gain voting powers only when her one-year term begins July 1, 2006, she knows exactly what will guide her decisions.
“More than anything, when I bring my voice to the table, I want it to be informed by the principles I think are important,” she said. What concerns her most, she explained, is “equitable admissions standards and policies” — put simply, “social justice.” |
