A University of California Regents special committee has nominated UC Irvine undergraduate Jesse Chang to serve as the student regent for the 2010-11 term.

The full Board of Regents will consider the nomination at their upcoming July 14 to 16 meeting. If approved, Cheng, a third-year Asian American studies major and the first undergraduate nominee since 2002, will serve as the UC’s 36th student regent following the term of UCSB graduate student Jesse Bernal.

The student regent holds one of the most influential posts a student can have at the UC. The student regent is a voting member of the Board of Regents and attends all Board meetings, which occur six times per year.

Cheng will serve as the student regent-designate in the coming year and will be allowed to participate in all deliberations, but he will not be able to officially vote at a Regents meeting until July 2010 – pending the projected start of his one-year term.

Cheng said he plans to exercise his student voice on the board so he can work with the Regents to improve the UC system.

“It’s a great honor to be chosen as student regent,” Cheng said in a press release. “I look forward to bringing a student perspective to the Regents and working with the UC community to determine the model the university will have for decades to come. I believe in accessibility and affordability. We need to be able to explain to the state that this is still a public institution for everyone and a vehicle for social mobility.”

Cheng has served as UCI’s external chair of the Asian Pacific Student Association, Associated Students executive vice president-elect, Academic Senate representative for the Council on Education Policy and chair of the Student Fee Advisory Committee.

For more information on the UC Regents, visit www.ucop.edu.