“Congratulations. What is the board of regents?”
That’s what Regent Felipe Garcia, 20, said that his friends told him when he shared the news that he would join the governing body of Arizona’s public university system.
Covering a variety of topics including setting tuition, approving coach’s contracts and building plans, the Arizona Board of Regents was a potential opportunity that Garcia had long hoped for. He wants to try and make changes for the better.
Since his official appointment on July 1, Garcia has been transformed, not just because he has since donned a beard. He has grown by experience.
However, Garcia is more than an ABOR representative. He is also a junior at the University of Arizona studying political science and creative intelligence and innovation and minoring in French. He is a Tucson native, having grown up speaking both English and Spanish.
Garcia explained that he was raised in a home that stressed public service. In middle school, Garcia took a class in which they would be given free reign over a variety of projects related to public services, including pulling weeds and painting classrooms.
“That really dipped my toes into service and got me into looking at how I can serve my community, whether it be hands-on picking up a shovel or hands-off reading through a board book,” Garcia said.
Continuing in the trend of community service, he was appointed to the Arizona Governor’s Youth Commission by Governor Katie Hobbs in high school.
Deciding to stay in his home town for college, Garcia wanted to follow in the footsteps of those in the governor’s office and study political science.
Garcia also learned about creative intelligence, a new degree offered by the W.A. Franke Honors College. It’s designed to help students understand complex problems and offer different solutions for them. In his learning there, Garcia has partnered with students studying everything from nutrition to neuroscience and worked with groups from the globally-recognized Red Cross to the more local Mission Gardens.
Garcia has been a highly-involved student in his time at the UA. He worked as the chief-of-staff to the Associated Students of the University of Arizona Student Body President Adriana Grijalva and as the undersecretary general for international coordination for the UA’s Model United Nations.
Garcia was particularly invested in his time as a courage fellow with GIFFORDS, a gun prevention and advocacy organization. He wanted to learn how gun violence impacts communities from both a public and mental health standpoint.
Garcia became a fellow, where he worked on projects, learned about community violence and met with individuals impacted by gun violence, such as the organization’s co-founder and former Congresswoman Gabrielle “Gabby” Giffords. Giffords was shot in the head by a gunman outside of a Tucson Safeway in 2011, facing a long road to recovery. After regaining her ability to speak and walk, Giffords made it her mission to tackle gun violence.
“I think our generation grew up with gun violence touching our educational journey,” Garcia said. “I remember our first lockdown drills in middle school. That always stayed with me. And it was something that I did not accept as a student, back then and today.”
Garcia was touched by Gifford’s story because he felt the community’s reaction of heartfelt emotion and support was indicative of the kind of culture inherent and unique to Tucson. In his personal opinion, he feels that gun violence is a policy-based issue, and that it requires Americans to be “more intelligent about our relationship with firearms,” Garcia said. He also wants more consideration around mental health.
“Her passion for serving her community for so many years is very admirable,” Garcia said about meeting Giffords.
Garcia is also currently on the Governor’s Service Commission as a youth commissioner, which focuses mostly on promoting service and federally-mandated AmeriCorps administration with regards to grants and other administrative tasks.
Garcia’s crowning professional appointment came on May 6 when Hobbs nominated him to be the UA’s student representative on the Arizona Board of Regents, a long-time dream come true for Garcia.
In his time at the Governor’s Youth Commission, he worked with Vianney Careaga, a staffer in then-Governor Doug Ducey’s office who was also a UA student regent appointed in 2016. Whereas many have not even heard of the board of regents, Garcia learned much from Careaga about its operations and its mission.
“I had it in the back of my mind that if the opportunity presents itself, I will definitely apply,” Garcia said.
The student regent appointment rotates between the three public universities. Garcia’s predecessor was a student at ASU, and his fellow student regent is from NAU. Garcia initially feared in that his college education at the UA would not allow him the chance to take the UA’s slot on the board of regents when their turn came around, but when he saw the application come up, his mind went back to what he learned from Careaga, remarking that this is what he had been waiting for.
The board of regents is currently occupied with a variety of initiatives, such as the College Ready AZ Initiative to help high school students go to college and complete their Free Application for Federal Student Aid and the Regents’ Grants, as well as pushing the state legislature during the budgeting process to preserve funding for things like the Arizona Teacher’s Academy.
The board of regents has 12 members. This includes eight appointed members, two student members and ex-officio members Hobbs and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Horne. Of these 12 members, 11 have voting powers in their position. At present, the one who does not is Garcia, as student members first must complete a one-year apprenticeship period before having the ability to vote in the second half of their two-year term, while he spends his first year mastering things like the 590-page board book.
Unlike his gubernatorial appointment to the Governor’s Service Commission, this appointment required confirmation from the Arizona Senate following Hobbs’ nomination. It also required a rather lengthy process starting in the fall 2024 that he shared was both surreal and nerve-wracking.
After an application and interview with the UA Selections Committee, the ASUA senate approved Garcia and two other finalists who interviewed with the governor’s office and with the governor herself. Following that, Garcia went before the Education and Transportation Committee of the state senate and informed them of his priorities as a potential member of the board of regents. With the eventual blessing of 23 state senators, the board of regents welcomed their newest member.
Garcia credits a lot of his learning to his predecessor David Zaragoza and his fellow student regent Jadyn Fisher, who helped him learn. Garcia mentioned that one of the most important lessons he has learned is to listen.
For his new position, Garcia often travels between his native UA campus and the ASU and NAU campuses, explaining that he feels it is important to have a chance to get a sense of what each campus is like and what they require, but that it is also important to meet students where they are.
In his first year of office, Garcia shared that his properties are civic engagement and connecting with student governments. He understands that the board’s meetings are long and tedious to many, and thus, the information that is technically publicly accessible is not dissipated to many. With this in mind, Garcia believes it is important to present this information in a digestible way, such social media reels.
“I want students to know that the board, you know, exists,” Garcia said.
As for student governments, each of the public universities has more than one. The UA, for example, has both ASUA and the Graduate and Professional Student Council. Garcia has a goal in making it easy for all the student governments to be able to pass information easily to both the board of regents and the students, in addition to each other.
“Sometimes, students come up with these really cool ideas that I would love to share with the student campus of another campus or another university,” Garcia said. “If ASNAU has a great idea and we can do it at the UA, then how can we connect those student governments with each other?”
Students often share ideas with Garcia in his capacity as a regent, including a recent interaction he had where a student suggested the implementation of cap and gown rentals to save money for graduating students and to try and get NAU to establish a service similar to UA’s Safe Ride.
Garcia proudly hangs his notice of nomination framed on the wall behind his desk, a testimony to what he called the “incredible experience” of the application process that finally culminated in his earning it. Yet with his accomplishment, he also wants students to know that he is a resource here for them.
“It’s important that students know that I am here,” Garcia said. “I’m here to answer your questions, I’m here to hear your concerns, I’m here to help explain some of the many conflicts and issues that are out there.”
