The UC Board of Regents will accept applications for the 2012-13 Student Regent until Feb. 17.

The Student Regent serves on the Board as a voting member for a one-year term. Once selected, the student will fulfill the non-voting role of Regent-Designate until the end of 2012, when he or she will become a voting member.

Jesse Cheng, an undergraduate Asian American studies major from UC Irvine currently serves as the 2010-11 Student Regent. The Regent-Designate for 2011-12, Alfredo Mireles Jr., is a first-generation college graduate and master’s candidate in Health Policy at UC San Francisco. His term as a voting member begins on July 1, 2011.

Together, Cheng and Mireles will travel to all 10 UC campuses before the application deadline to urge students to apply for next year’s position.

The chosen applicant — to be the 38th student regent since the position’s establishment in 1975 — will receive free tuition, waived university fees and reimbursement for travel expenses during the years spent as a Regent-Designate and Regent Board Member.

Regent-Designate Mireles Jr. said he anxiously awaits his time as a legitimate board member.

“The University is undergoing fundamental changes that will deeply alter it to its core,” Mireles said. “It is imperative that we have engaged student leaders working to make sure that these changes serve student interests as much as possible.”

The student regent application can be found at http://www.universityofcalifornia.edu/regents/app12.pdf.