Bill Text: CA ACA18 | 2025-2026 | Regular Session | Introduced

NOTE: There are more recent revisions of this legislation. Read Latest Draft

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Bill Title: University of California: regents: student members.

Sponsorship: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 29-6)

Status: (Engrossed) 2026-06-09 - From committee chair, with author's amendments: Amend, and re-refer to committee. Read second time, amended, and re-referred to Com. on APPR. [ACA18 Detail]

Download: California-2025-ACA18-Introduced.html

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CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2025–2026 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Constitutional Amendment

No. 18

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Introduced by Assembly Members Caloza and Ahrens

February 20, 2026

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A resolution to propose to the people of the State of California an amendment to the Constitution of the State, by amending Section 9 of Article IX thereof, relating to the University of California.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST

ACA 18, as introduced, Caloza. University of California: regents: student members.

The California Constitution provides that the University of California constitutes a public trust, and requires the university to be administered by the Regents of the University of California, a corporation in the form of a board, with full powers of organization and government, subject to legislative control only for specified purposes. The California Constitution requires the board to consist of 7 ex officio members and 18 appointive members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate. The California Constitution authorizes the members of the board to appoint either a member of the faculty at a campus of the university or of another institution of higher education, or a person enrolled as a student at a campus of the university, or both, as members of the board serving for no less than one year with all rights of participation.

This measure would require, instead of authorize, the members of the board to appoint to the board 2 students enrolled at a campus of the university for each regular academic term during their service as members of the board, as provided. The measure would also require each student board member to serve as a nonvoting student regent-designate in the year preceding the start of their term as a member of the board, and would require one nonvoting student regent-designate to be enrolled as an undergraduate student and one nonvoting student regent-designate to be enrolled as a graduate or professional student when appointed to the nonvoting student regent-designate position, as specified.

Digest Key

Vote: 2/3   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

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Bill Text

Resolved by the Assembly, the Senate concurring, That the Legislature of the State of California at its 2025–26 Regular Session commencing on the second day of December 2024, two-thirds of the membership of each house concurring, hereby proposes to the people of the State of California, that the Constitution of the State be amended as follows:

First—

 This measure shall be known, and may be cited, as the Student Empowerment Referendum for Voting Inclusion in Colleges and Education (SERVICE) Act.

Second—

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:

(a) The University of California currently enrolls nearly 300,000 students across 10 campuses.

(b) A voting student regent position was first created in 1974 through the passage of Proposition 4 at a time when the University of California enrolled approximately 124,000 students.

(c) The size, diversity, programmatic scope, and governance responsibilities of the University of California have significantly expanded since 1974, yet student representation on the Board of Regents has not changed accordingly.

(d) Students serving in systemwide roles report difficulty in meaningfully participating in regent decisionmaking due to limited committee coverage, concurrent committee meetings, and a lack of continuity and institutional memory across one-year terms.

(e) Expanding the number of voting student regents and the length of student regent terms will enhance shared governance, strengthen continuity, and provide representation that is better aligned with the student population served by the University of California.

(f) Maintaining the existing selection structure though the University of California Student Association and the University of California Graduate and Professional Council ensures that representation remains independent, systemwide, and nonpartisan.

Third—

 That Section 9 of Article IX thereof is amended to read:

SEC. 9.

 (a) The University of California shall constitute a public trust, to be administered by the existing corporation known as “The Regents of the University of California,” with full powers of organization and government, subject only to such legislative control as may be necessary to insure ensure the security of its funds and compliance with the terms of the endowments of the university and such competitive bidding procedures as may be made applicable to the university by statute for the letting of construction contracts, sales of real property, and purchasing of materials, goods, and services. Said The corporation shall be in form a board composed of seven ex officio members, which who shall be: the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the Assembly, the Superintendent of Public Instruction, the president and the vice president of the alumni association of the university university, and the acting president of the university, and 18 appointive members appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, a majority of the membership concurring; provided, however that the present appointive members shall hold office until the expiration of their present terms. concurring.

(b) (1) The terms of the members appointed prior to before November 5, 1974, shall be 16 years; the terms of two appointive members to expire as heretofore on March 1st 1 of every even-numbered calendar year, and two members shall be appointed for terms commencing on March 1, 1976, and on March 1 of each year thereafter; provided that no such appointments shall be made for terms to commence on March 1, 1979, or on March 1 of each fourth year thereafter, to the end that no appointment to the regents for a newly commencing term shall be made during the first year of any gubernatorial term of office. The terms of the members appointed for terms commencing on and after March 1, 1976, shall be 12 years. During the period of transition until the time when the appointive membership is comprised exclusively of persons serving for terms of 12 years, the total number of appointive members may exceed the numbers specified in the preceeding paragraph.

In

(2) In case of any vacancy, the term of office of the appointee to fill such that vacancy, who shall be appointed by the Governor and approved by the Senate, a majority of the membership concurring, shall be for the balance of the term for which such that vacancy exists.

(c) The members of the board may, in their discretion, board, following procedures established by them and after consultation with representatives of faculty and students of the university, including appropriate officers of the academic senate and student governments, senate, may, in their discretion, appoint to the board either or both of the following persons as members with all rights of participation: a member of the faculty at a campus of the university or of another institution of higher education; a person enrolled as a student at a campus of the university for each regular academic term during his service as a member of the board. education. Any person so faculty appointed pursuant to this subdivision shall serve for not less than one year commencing on July 1. 1, and shall be a member of the board with all rights of participation as regular members of the board.

(d) (1) The members of the board, following procedures established by them and after consultation with representatives of students of the university, including the University of California Student Association and the University of California Graduate and Professional Council, or their successor organizations, respectively, shall appoint to the board two students enrolled at a campus of the university for each regular academic term during their service as a member of the board with all powers, duties, voting authority, rights, and responsibilities as regular members of the board as follows:

(A) One student member shall be appointed to serve a term of two years beginning on July 1 of an even-numbered year and expiring on June 30 two years thereafter. Beginning on July 1 of the odd-numbered year preceding the start of their term as a member of the board, and expiring on June 30 of the year thereafter, the student shall serve as a nonvoting student regent-designate. A student member appointed to the board pursuant to this subparagraph shall be enrolled as an undergraduate student at the time of appointment to the nonvoting student regent-designate position.

(B) One student member shall be appointed to serve a term of two years beginning on July 1 of an odd-numbered year and expiring on June 30 two years thereafter. Beginning on July 1 of the even-numbered year preceding the start of their term as a member of the board, and expiring on June 30 of the year thereafter, the student shall serve as a nonvoting student regent-designate. A student member appointed to the board pursuant to this subparagraph shall be enrolled as a graduate or professional student at the time of appointment to the nonvoting student regent-designate position.

(2) A student regent appointed to the board pursuant to this subdivision shall not serve more than one year as a nonvoting student regent-designate or more than two years as a student member.

(d)

(e) Regents shall be able persons broadly reflective of the economic, cultural, and social diversity of the State, including ethnic minorities and women. However, it is not intended that formulas or specific ratios be applied in the selection of regents.

(e)

(f) In the selection of the Regents, regents, the Governor shall consult an advisory committee composed as follows: The Speaker of the Assembly and two public members appointed by the Speaker, the President Pro pro Tempore of the Senate and two public members appointed by the Rules Committee of the Senate, Senate Committee on Rules, two public members appointed by the Governor, the chairman chairperson of the regents of the university, an alumnus of the university chosen by the alumni association of the university, a student of the university chosen by the Council of Student Body Presidents, and a member of the faculty of the university chosen by the academic senate of the university. Public members shall serve for four years, except that one each of the initially appointed members selected by the Speaker of the Assembly, the President Pro pro Tempore of the Senate, and the Governor shall be appointed to serve for two years; student, alumni, and faculty members shall serve for one year and may not be regents of the university at the time of their service on the advisory committee.

(f)

(g) The Regents of the University of California shall be vested with the legal title and the management and disposition of the property of the university and of property held for its benefit benefit, and shall have the power to take and hold, either by purchase or by donation, or gift, testamentary or otherwise, or in any other manner, without restriction, all real and personal property for the benefit of the university or incidentally to its conduct; provided, however, that conduct. However, sales of university real property shall be subject to such competitive bidding procedures as may be provided by statute. Said The corporation shall also have all the powers necessary or convenient for the effective administration of its trust, including the power to sue and to be sued, to use a seal, and to delegate to its committees or to the faculty of the university, or to others, such authority or functions as it may deem wise. The Regents regents shall receive all funds derived from the sale of lands pursuant to the act Act of Congress of July 2, 1862, and any subsequent acts amendatory thereof. The university shall be entirely independent of all political or sectarian influence and kept free therefrom in the appointment of its regents and in the administration of its affairs, and no person shall be debarred admission to any department of the university on account of race, religion, ethnic heritage, or sex.

(g)

(h) Meetings of the Regents of the University of California shall be public, with exceptions and notice requirements as may be provided by statute.