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July 21, 1997
Staff organization to ask Board of Regents for representation
By Cynthia Lee
UCLA Today staff
Leaders of the organization representing staff at the University of California's nine campuses will be asking the Board of Regents to consider allowing a staff representative to sit at the table alongside faculty representatives and join in the board's discussion of issues relevant to staff employees.
Currently, the chair and the vice chair of the Council of UC Staff Assemblies, an umbrella group made up of two representatives from each campus, regularly attend Regents' meetings and are seated alongside top UC executives and chancellors facing the board table.
"When issues come up that we would like to speak on, we can't simply raise our hands to add our comments," said Jani Quintero, new chair of the council representing more than 60,000 staff employees and past chair of the UCLA Staff Assembly. "We can only add our comments during the public-comment period, which can occur hours before the actual committee discussion. So there's no opportunity for rebuttal discussion. And, as members of the general public, we're limited to three minutes."
Public-comment periods, held so that the members of the public can discuss matters on the Regents' agenda, are scheduled at the beginning of each morning and afternoon open session before the Regents begin the public session.
Once the Regents' discussions are under way, there is no opportunity to join in with relevant and cogent information, said Quintero, manager of Payroll and Personnel in Transportation Services at UCLA. While alumni and student Regents and faculty representatives have standing as members of the Board of Regents and can freely participate in discussions, staff representatives lack that kind of representation at the table, she said.
"We are not looking to secure a regental vote," Quintero said, "but we do need a better mechanism to provide staff input. As elected representatives of the staff, we feel we can in many instances provide information to the Regents for a more balanced discussion. Right now, it can be quite frustrating, but we are heartened that avenues of discussion are beginning to open up on this matter."
The concept of a staff delegate to the board has been informally discussed with several Regents individually for several years. In the past, UC President Richard Atkinson has talked with the council about having a mechanism to allow a staff-advisory group to voice their comments, Quintero said. At the last Regents' meeting in June at UC Irvine, she said, two Regents, Roy Brophy and William Bagley, indicated they would support the idea of greater staff input.
The Staff Council is drafting a letter to Regent Pat Kessler, who is heading up a committee looking at the current format for public comment, and asking the Regents' support for a nonvoting staff delegate. Leaders plan to follow this up with a request to the Office of the President that a formal proposal be put on the agenda.
"It's going to be one of my top goals while I serve as chair," Quintero said.