New student regent to work for diversity, affordability

By Ajay Singh

While more than a few graduating seniors may still be hazy about what life after Commencement 2007 will look like for them, D'Artagnan Scorza has a pretty good idea what's in store for him.

In July, the UC regents are set to appoint Scorza the student regent for 2008-09. If they approve his nomination, the regents will have in their midst someone with firsthand experience in some of the major issues the university is grappling with today: student diversity, affordability and access.

"I want to take a lot of the work I do into the UC Board of Regents and help shape policy," said Scorza, who is graduating this June with a major in religious studies before beginning work on a Ph.D. in his minor, education. "That's where my heart is at because that's where a lot of the problems we have today stem from," he said.

If his nomination is approved, he would participate in all of the regents' deliberations as student regent-designate during 2007-08, but not vote until July 2008 when his one-year term would begin.

Student diversity and affordability are Scorza's twin passions — and he has considerable experience promoting both. He has worked closely with the University of California Students Association to try to lower student fees and increase funding for academic preparation programs. For the past year, Scorza has been the McNair Undergraduate Research Scholar in UCLA's Academic Advancement Program, where he studied the obstacles African-American male students face in education.

A recipient of the Wasserman Scholarship, Scorza has mentored African Americans at the Student Retention Center on campus and worked as access coordinator with the African Students Union. In addition, he is a student representative on the Chancellor's Enrollment Advisory Committee as well as a member of the Student Initiated Access Committee and the UCLA Task Force on African American Enrollment.

"There are a lot of things that are going to be on the regents' plate for next year ... but my primary interest is how to ensure that an internationally diverse student body can afford a UC education," Scorza said, adding that he would also like to enhance the issue of sustainability.

To ensure student diversity, it's imperative that the university focus on the K-12 pipeline first, Scorza observed. "Is the gate open to all or only to some? Do we have a fully funded academic preparation program? Until we fix these problems, it will be extremely difficult to fix the diversity issue at UC," he said.

As student regent, Scorza will bring to the job a wealth of firsthand knowledge about the problems for which many of the state’s worst K-12 schools have become notorious. Raised in the impoverished Watts region of Los Angeles, where race riots erupted in 1965, Scorza often didn't have books at the neighborhood's 96th Street Elementary School. In fact, when he was in ninth grade, said Scorza, the school didn’t have a math teacher. His father, a drug addict, never finished high school and is unemployed; his mother is an office clerk. "But I still struggled, and that's the whole reason I believe in a certain idea of merit — that students who achieve the most in the context of their environment should have access to public education," Scorza said.

His own education at UCLA was interrupted when he joined the U.S. Navy following 9/11. He eventually served in Iraq, where his responsibilities included personnel, records and communications management. In April 2006, he returned to UCLA to resume his studies.

Scorza's high-energy activism was triggered in high school, where, among other issues, he opposed guns; soon after, he became involved in church-related volunteer work. But it wasn’t until he visited Nelson Mandela's historic prison cell during a 2001 trip to South Africa that the importance of political activism dawned on Scorza.

"When I saw how this man had suffered to free his people of social subjugation, I was able to connect the dots to our own political struggle here," he said.

Scorza has since channeled that fervor into a number of projects. For example, he helped organize a May 15 campus discussion, "Social Welfare and Gangs: A Community and Policy Challenge." Some 350 people attended, including victims of gang violence crippled for life.

"It was the most consciousness-raising event I've ever attended," he said. "We went straight from 'Why are there gangs?' to 'What are our solutions?' " Educating the academic community about gangs and connecting communities to academic preparation and outreach programs could provide some answers, he said.

Scorza believes it's critical for the university to connect communities with the research it generates for public policy.

"We have to utilize the skills, tools and resources across UC for the community’s benefit," he said.